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EDWIN DROOD 



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ABOUT 

EDIVIN DROOD 



Cambridge 

at the University Press 

191 1 



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To the members of the *' Cloisterham Syndicate," 
and to our kind guide, Mr Edwin Harris, I dedicate 
these Notes and Queries, in memory of our explora- 
tion of Dickensland, 3 — 6 July 1909. 

H. J. 



Trinity College, Cambridge. 
17 July 1910. 



PREFACE 

These pages do not pretend to fill by conjecture the 
gaps in Charles Dickens' unfinished story. It is certain 
that he had bestowed especial pains upon the structure 
of his plot, and that he was anxious to keep his secret 
till the right moment came for its disclosure. This 
being so, I do not believe that any ingenuity of con- 
jecture can supply what Dickens did not live to write. 
But the fragment which we possess has always seemed 
to me a masterpiece : and, thus thinking, I attempt, not 
to add to what Dickens has left to us, but to make 
clear and definite so much of the story as is covered 
by the twenty-three extant chapters, and to elucidate 
certain details which seem to me to have been mis- 
understood or overlooked. I am moved to do this by 
the publication of Mr J. Cuming Walters' Clues to 
Dickens s '' Mystery of Edwin Drood'' and Mr Andrew 
Lang's Puzzle of Dickens s Last Plot, works which, 
inasmuch as they deal comprehensively and minutely 
with the extant fragment, invite criticism and assist 
reconstruction. To both I am deeply indebted ; for, 
whatever may be thought of Mr Cuming Walters' 
theory that Datchery is Helena disguised, his present- 



VI 11 Preface 

ment of it has been a help and a stimulus to all of us : 
and, while I demur to Mr Lang's identification of 
Datchery with Edwin Drood, I am always, I hope, 
mindful of his timely warning that the novelist is 
apt to be the slave of his story. If in the course of 
my argument I have to say more about matters in 
which I differ from these scholars than about matters 
in which I agree with them, I hope that they will 
not think me ungrateful. On the contrary, I never 
forget how, at a time when I was an invalid and 
solitary, their speculations occupied my thoughts and 
crave me food for meditation. 



& 



But, besides these comprehensive reviews, there 
are in the Dickensian, The Cambridge Review^ 
and other periodicals, a host of papers and notes. 
I do not attempt a bibliography ; but I have en- 
deavoured to give such references as are likely to be 
helpful. 

In citing Edwin Drood I have given the pages 
of the "Fireside Dickens." For the convenience of 
those who use the original edition or the " Popular 
Edition," I have shown in tabular form the pagination 
of the chapters in the three editions. To the pub- 
lishers, Messrs Chapman and Hall, I am indebted for 
permission to make quotations and to reproduce the 
cover of the monthly parts. 



Preface ix 

I am grateful to many friends for valuable criticisms 
and suggestions: and, in particular, to Dr Bonney, who 
kindly wrote out for me his own theories ; to the 
Provost of King's, who told me of the existence of 
the manuscript at the Victoria and Albert Museum ; 
to Mr H. H. Brindley, who enlightened my ignorance 
about the operation of opium ; to Mr A. E. Shipley, 
who organised an expedition to Rochester, which did 
much to help me to visualise Cloisterham ; and to 
Mr Edwin Harris of Rochester, who seems to me 
to know all that can be known about Dickens and 
Dickensland, and has freely given me the benefit of 
his erudition. 

In conclusion, I thank the Syndics of the Cam- 
bridge University Press for undertaking the publication 
of this little book. 

H. J. 

17 Jtily 1910. 



My references are to the pages of the " Fireside 
Dickens," published by Messrs Chapman and Hall 
and Mr Henry Frowde. The following table equates 
the pagination of this edition with that of the original 
edition and with that of their " Popular" edition. 



Chapters 


Original 


Popular 


Fireside 


i 


I 


7 


II 


ii 


3 


10 


17 


iii 


12 


21 


28 


iv 


21 


33 


42 


V 


28 


42 


52 


vi 


33 


49 


59 


vii 


40 


59 


69 


viii 


47 


68 


80 


ix 


54 


77 


91 


X 


65 


92 


106 


xi 


75 


106 


120 


xii 


86 


120 


134 


xiii 


97 


134 


150 


xiv 


104 


144 


163 


XV 


114 


158 


177 


xvi 


121 


166 


188 


xvii 


129 


176 


198 


xviii 


140 


191 


213 


xix 


147 


200 


222 


XX 


153 


207 


232 


xxi 


161 


217 


244 


xxii 


165 


223 


250 


xxiii 


178 


240 


269 



CONTENTS 



§ i. Introduction 

§ ii. The chronology of the extant fragment 

§ iii. Jasper's machinations against Edwin Drood 

chapters i-xiv .... 

§ iv. Jasper's machinations against Neville Land 

less : chapters xv-xvii and xix-xxii 
§ V. Datchery : chapters xviii and xxiii 
§ vi. The cover 
§ vii. The opium-woman 
§ viii. Did Drood escape ? 
§ ix. The manuscript 
§ x. Conclusion . 



PAGE 

I 



15 

30 
38 
55 
59 
62 

73 

88 



Map of Rochester 
Facsimile of Cover 



to face p. I 
»» »> 55 




Rochester 



Based upon the Ordnance Sn>~'Ly Map ivith the sanction of the 
Controller of H.M. Stationery Office 



§ i. Introduction. 

It is well known that Dickens was scrupulously 
reticent about the plot of his last story, and that he 
left behind him no notes for the chapters which he 
did not live to write. Nevertheless there is one all- 
important tradition which must not be neglected. 
Mr John Forster, in his Life of Charles Dickens, 
iii 425, 426, has a very precise account of the plot 
which Dickens had proposed to himself in Edwin 
Drood. " The story, I learnt immediately afterward, 
was to be that of the murder of a nephew by his uncle ; 
the originality of which was to consist in the review of 
the murderer's career by himself at the close, when its 
temptations were to be dwelt upon as if, not he the 
culprit, but some other man, were the tempted. The 
last chapters were to be written in the condemned cell, 
to which his wickedness, all elaborately elicited from 
him as if told of another, had brought him. Discovery 
by the murderer of the utter uselessness of the murder 
for its object, was to follow hard upon commission of 
the deed ; but all discovery of the murderer was to be 
baffled till towards the close, when, by means of a gold 
ring which has resisted the corrosive effects of the lime 

J- I 



2 About Edwin Drood 

into which he had thrown the body, not only the person 
murdered was to be identified but the locaHty of the 
crime and the man who committed it. So much was 
told to me before any of the book was written ; and it 
will be recollected that the ring, taken by Drood to be 
given to his betrothed only if their engagement went 
on, was brought away with him from their last inter- 
view. Rosa was to marry Tartar, and Crisparkle the 
sister of Landless, who was himself, I think, to have 
perished in assisting Tartar finally to unmask and 
seize the murderer." 

The extant fragment, so far as it goes, is perfectly 
consistent with the scheme here described. Directly 
or indirectly we hear that Jasper leads a double life ; 
that, despite his real or pretended affection for his 
nephew, under the influence of opium he "threatens" 
him ; that, not under the influence of opium, he pro- 
vokes a quarrel between Drood and Landless, and 
subsequently makes the most of it; that he under- 
takes an " unaccountable expedition " with Durdles ; 
and that, at a later visit to the opium den, he babbles 
about the accomplishment of a long contemplated 
design. The discovery that the engagement of Edwin 
and Rosa is at an end follows soon after the disappear- 
ance. That the old betrothal ring, which, though 
Jasper did not know it, Edwin had in his possession, 
and, when he parted from Rosa, still retained, was 
hereafter to play an important part in the denotement, 
we are warned in an emphatic aside : "there was one 
chain forged in the moment of that small conclusion" 
[i.e. Edwin's determination to say nothing to Rosa 



Introduction 3 

about the ring], " riveted to the foundations of heaven 
and earth, and gifted with invincible force to hold and 
drag." Thus far, the story left half-told is in exact 
accord with the forecast. But, whereas, according to 
Forster, (i) Drood's disappearance was to remain un- 
explained until the betrothal ring should discover the 
murderer, the victim, and the locality of the crime, and 
(2) the murderer was to write his confessions in the 
condemned cell, the extant fragment stops short of 
these things. It is indeed possible, and even probable, 
that Grewgious has anxiously asked himself what had 
become of the ring : but there is nothing to guide him 
in the search for it ; and accordingly, within the limits 
of the fragment the disappearance of Edwin Drood is 
still a " mystery." It is a " mystery " for us who know, 
not only what is common knowledge to the inhabitants 
of Cloisterham, but also the observations of the opium- 
woman, and the suspicions of Grewgious and Rosa : 
and it is all the more a " mystery " for those who have 
not our advantages; for the inhabitants of Cloisterham, 
for the opium-woman, and for Grewgious and Rosa 
and their allies. 

To some critics however, and notably to Mr Proctor 
and Mr Lang, the plot described by Forster seems too 
simple and obvious : and accordingly they suppose that, 
though Jasper had planned the murder and believed 
himself to have committed it, Drood escaped, and 
within the limits of the fragment is already occupied 
in tracking his assailant. 

Now it is certain that Dickens intended to keep 
his readers in doubt about Drood's fate. For in a 

I — 2 



4 About Edwin Drood 

tentative list of possible titles for the book the last 
three are " The disappearance of Edwin Drood," "The 
mystery of Edwin Drood," " Dead ? or Alive ? " 
This being so, both theories, the theory countenanced 
by Forster, that Jasper accomplished the murder of 
Drood, and the theory of Mr Proctor and Mr Lang, 
that Drood escaped, are admissible : and I propose in 
due course to take both into consideration. 



§ ii. The chronology of the extant fragment. 

In the first place it is worth while to study the 
chronology of the twenty-three chapters which Dickens 
completed. 

Chapters i to iii cover two days when the year was 
waning, p. 17. In ch. i Jasper, who has entered the 
opium-den at midnight, p. 12, leaves it on the morning 
of the first of these two days, and returns to Cloister- 
ham in time for vespers, p. 16, In ch. ii, later in this 
same day — which is a Wednesday, p. 20, and Rosa's 
birthday, p. 21 — he welcomes Edwin Drood. In ch. iii, 
the next day, Thursday, pp. 31 and 33, Edwin and 
Rosa take a walk together which is not a happy one. 

Chapters iv and v describe the events of a single 
evening later in the year. In ch. iv Jasper takes wine and 
sups with Sapsea, commends the inscription to be placed 
on the Sapsea monument^ and makes acquaintance 
with Durdles. In ch. v Jasper quarrels with Deputy. 

Chapters vi to ix relate events which took place not 

^ Mr Proctor and Mr Walters suppose that the Sapsea vault was 
in the crypt : see Watched by the Dead, p. 74, and Clues, pp. 24, 
109. This is an oversight. That the Sapsea monument was in the 
burial-ground adjoining the cathedral is proved by pp. 53 and 219, 
220; and Durdles' talk about the key at pp. 49, 50 precludes the 
conjecture that the vault and the monument were distinct. 



6 About Edwin Drood 

very long before Christmas ; say, early in December : 
for in ch. xi, p. 125, not long before Christmas, 
Grewgious speaks of his visit described in ch. ix as 
having been made "lately." These chapters, vi to ix, 
cover a Thursday and the Monday and Tuesday next 
ensuing. That is to say, ch. vi tells us, how one 
morning Crisparkle and his mother read a letter written 
by Honey thunder from London on Wednesday, p. 61, 
in which he announces the arrival of Neville and Helena 
Landless for the following Monday, and how on the 
appointed day Honey thunder unexpectedly accom- 
panied his wards and spoilt Mrs Crisparkle's dinner 
party : ch. vii records Neville's talk with Crisparkle, 
the scene in the drawing-room, and the confidences of 
Helena and Rosa : ch. viii tells of the quarrel between 
Neville and Edwin, which Jasper foments and after- 
wards reports to Crisparkle : ch. ix recounts the events 
of the following day, Tuesday ; namely, the chatter at 
Miss Twinkleton's, and Mr Grewgious' visit to Rosa. 
At pp. loi, 102 — compare p. 80 — we learn that Edwin, 
who left Cloisterham that morning, would return at 
Christmas ; and that Grewgious, who would entertain 
Bazzard at dinner on Christmas Day, would come to 
Cloisterham, presumably on Dec. 26, if Rosa " had 
anything particular to say to him." At pp. 104, 105 
Grewgious tells Jasper that at Christmas Edwin and 
Rosa would complete their preparations for May, and 
that, when they had done so, nothing would remain for 
the guardians but to have everything ready for their 
formal release from their trusts on Edwin's birthday. 
Grewgious and Jasper part on good terms. 



The chronology of the extant fragment 7 

Between ch. ix and ch. x some days have elapsed. 
As appears in Crisparkle's conversations with his 
mother, with Neville and Helena, and with Jasper, 
Crisparkle has had time to study the two Landlesses ; 
and on the strength of his observations he asks Jasper 
to intercede with Edwin. After *' some close internal 
calculation" Jasper consents, and on the third day 
after this conversation he brings to Crisparkle a letter 
from Edwin proposing that the three should meet at 
dinner on Saturday, Dec. 24, and "shake hands all 
round there and then." 

The interval between ch. x and ch. xi is not a long 
one : for, as has been said, in ch. xi, p. 125, Grewgious 
speaks of his visit to Cloisterham described in ch. ix as 
having been made "lately." Again the interval between 
ch. xi, Drood's visit to Grewgious, and ch. xii, "the 
unaccountable expedition," is not long : for Grewgious 
assumes, p. 124, that Drood will very soon go to 
Cloisterham for Christmas. " The unaccountable ex- 
pedition " of ch. xii was on "the first day" of the 
week which ended with Christmas Eve, p. 142: that 
is to say, as clearly appears from a comparison of 
p. 142 with p. 166, on the first week-day of that week, 
namely, Monday the 19th. Now it is reasonable to 
suppose that Bazzard was not in attendance at Staple 
Inn on Saturday night. This being so, we may fairly 
assign ch. xi to Friday, Dec. 16. It is however con- 
ceivable that Drood's visit to Grewgious in ch. xi was 
contemporaneous with "the unaccountable expedition" 
of ch. xii on Monday, Dec. 19. 

The chapters which follow, xii to xvi, describe in 



8 About Edwin Drood 

detail the events of Dec. 19 to Dec. 28, and, in general 
terms, the subsequent situation. The dates of some 
of these chapters, but not of all, can be exactly de- 
termined. We have seen that " the unaccountable 
expedition" of ch. xii was on Monday the 19th. "The 
concluding ceremony" at Miss Twinkleton's in ch. xiii 
may have been on Tuesday the 20th, Wednesday the 
2ist, or Thursday the 22nd. The parting of Edwin 
and Rosa was on Friday the 23rd, p. 159. Edwin's 
intention is (pp. 159, 161) to stay till Monday, to see 
Grewgious when he arrives, and to leave Cloisterham 
before Grewgious speaks with Jasper : compare p. 196. 
Edwin says nothing to Rosa about the betrothal ring, 
which he will now restore to Grewgious\ 

In ch. xiv "When shall these three meet again ?" 
we have the history of Saturday, Dec. 24. Neville 
prepares for his expedition, and talks with Crisparkle 
and with Helena. Edwin visits the jeweller, and has 

^ It is not the retention of the ring, but Edwin's silence about it, 
which Dickens emphasises: "there was one chain forged in the 
moment of that small conclusion, riveted to the foundations of 
heaven and earth, and gifted with invincible force to hold and 
drag." I understand Dickens to imply that, if Edwin had told 
Rosa about the ring, his possession of it would have become 
common knowledge, and Jasper would have been on his guard : 
but that so long as Grewgious alone was aware of its existence, 
he was master of the situation. If, later, Grewgious, presumably 
through Durdles, heard of its discovery, an advertisement for a ring, 
known to have been in the possession of the late Edwin Drood, 
would draw the murderer to the place where the body was made 
away with. It will be observed that, if, as some have supposed, 
Drood escaped and immediately communicated with Grewgious, 
the ring ceases to be of any importance as a proof of identity. 



The chronology of the extant fragment 9 

a remarkable conversation with the opium-woman. 
Jasper, who has spent the previous night in the opium- 
den, shops, visits Sapsea, and talks with Crisparkle. 
The three, Jasper, Drood, and Landless, meet at 
dinner at the gatehouse. There is a great storm. 
Edwin and Neville go to the river. The next morn- 
ing, Sunday, Dec. 25, Jasper announces Edwin's 
disappearance. 

In ch. XV Neville, who has started for his walk 
early on the morning of Sunday, Dec. 25, is pursued 
and brought back to Cloisterham. The search for 
Edwin is carried on throughout Sunday the 25th, 
Monday the 26th, and Tuesday the 27th. On the even- 
ing of Tuesday the 27th, Jasper on his return to the 
gatehouse is visited by Grewgious\ who has seen Rosa 

^ Mr Lang, Puzzle, pp. 59, 60, supposes that Grewgious arrived 
at Cloisterham on Saturday, December 24, and visited the church- 
yard that he might " ' consecrate a night of memories and sighs ' 
to his lost lady love," Mrs Bud, who, "we have been told, was 
buried hard by the Sapsea monument." Now we know that the 
late Mr Drood was buried in that neighbourhood, p. 53: but I do 
not remember that there is any such statement about the burial 
place of Rosa's mother. However this may be, it is certain that 
Grewgious did not come to Cloisterham before Monday the 26th. 
For, in the absence of a summons from Rosa, he was to entertain 
Bazzard at dinner on Christmas Day, p. 102 : and, although Rosa 
has sent for her guardian, it follows from her conversation with 
Edwin, p. 159, that she has not asked him to cancel his engage- 
ment to Bazzard : if Grewgious had come to Cloisterham on the 
Saturday, his presence might have created serious difficulties. More- 
over, Rosa's statement at p. 196 that "Edwin disappeared before 
Mr Grewgious appeared," is conclusive evidence that Grewgious 
did not arrive on Christmas Eve. 



lo About Edwin Drood 

and Helena. Grewgious tells Jasper of the parting of 
Edwin and Rosa, and Jasper has a fit or swoon. 

In ch. xvi — still the evening of Tuesday the 27th 
— Jasper recovers his senses, and talks, first with 
Grewgious, afterwards with Grewgious and Crisparkle. 
In his talk with Grewgious Jasper expresses his con- 
viction that Drood has absconded in order to avoid 
awkward explanations; and, when Crisparkle comes in, 
he affirms that Grewgious' communication " has hope- 
fully influenced" his "mind, in spite of its having been... 
profoundly impressed against young Landless." Now it 
is plain to the reader that Grewgious, though he "does 
not know what to think " and " cannot make up his 
mind," has completely changed his attitude to Jasper, 
and "has suspicions" of the gravest sort in regard to 
him; compare p. 270. But he says nothing about 
them: and Crisparkle, impressed by Jasper's apparent 
candour, tells his companions of Neville's second out- 
break of temper and of his jealousy. On leaving the 
gatehouse Crisparkle walks aimlessly to the weir. The 
next morning, Wednesday the 28th, he returns thither, 
and finds Edwin's watch and shirt-pin. Neville is 
"detained and redetained," but no further evidence 
is forthcoming. Presently he leaves Cloisterham. On 
the strength of the discovery of the watch and the 
shirt-pin, Jasper declares himself convinced that Drood 
has been murdered, and devotes himself to the destruc- 
tion of the murderer. 

It would seem then that, if these chapters follow 
one another in chronological order, — and there is no 
reason why they should not do so, — their dates are as 



The chronology of the extant fragment 1 1 

follows : xii, Dec. 19 ; the beginning of xiii, Dec. 20, 
21, or 22; the end of xiii, Dec. 23; xiv, Dec. 24; 
XV, Dec. 25, 26, 27 ; xvi, Dec. 27, 28, and following 
days. 

And now there is a break in the narrative. When 
it is resumed at ch. xvii, we are told that " full half a 
year had come and gone." The incidents recorded in 
ch. xvii and in chs. xix to xxii follow closely upon one 
another, and do not occupy more than six or seven 
days. There is indeed an interval between ch. xvii 
and ch. xix: but it is a very short one. For (i) in 
ch. xxi, p. 244, when Crisparkle arrives, Grewgious 
remarks that " it was particularly kind of him to come, 
for he had but just gone," where Grewgious plainly 
refers to Crisparkle's visit described in ch. xvii : and 
(2) at p. 247, Tartar speaks of having made acquaintance 
with Neville "only within a day or so"; compare ch. xvii, 
pp. 209-2 1 2. Further, we know from Crisparkle, 
ch. xvii, p. 206, that Helena is to join Neville in 
London, for a long visit, "next week." If then we 
are to bring ch. xvii into close connection with ch. xix, 
and at the same time to provide that Helena's arrival 
may fall in the following week, we must suppose that 
Crisparkle and Tartar visited Neville on a Friday or a 
Saturday, and that Helena came to London on the 
following Monday. Now, if Dec. 25 of the previous 
year was a Sunday, and the current year was not leap- 
year, July 2 was a Sunday. In the following scheme 
I take this day as my basis. 

Ch. xvii. Friday, June 30. Crisparkle comes to 
London; sees Honeythunder, Grewgious, and Neville; 



12 About Edwin Drood 

and returns to Cloisterham. Tartar makes acquaint- 
ance with Neville. 

Ch. xix. Miss Twinkleton's school having broken 
up on Saturday, July i, on the following Monday, 
July 3, Helena comes to London to join her brother. 
In the afternoon Jasper visits Rosa and frightens her 
with his wild talk. 

Ch. XX. The same day, Rosa flies to London. 
Grewgious establishes her at the hotel in Furnival's. 

Ch. xxi. Tuesday, July 4. Crisparkle arrives. 
Tartar introduces himself to Crisparkle, Grewgious, 
and Rosa. 

Ch. xxii. The same day. Rosa explains the 
situation to Helena, p. 252, Helena raises the ques- 
tion " whether it would be best to wait until any more 
maligning and pursuing of Neville on the part of this 
wretch shall disclose itself, or to try to anticipate it." 
Crisparkle refers the question to Grewgious, who holds 
that " if you could steal a march upon a brigand or a 
wild beast, you had better do it," and that "John 
Jasper was a brigand and a wild beast in combina- 
tion." Crisparkle goes home. Grewgious engages 
lodgings for Rosa. Tartar takes Rosa and Grewgious 
up the river. 

On the next day but one, p. 260, Thursday, July 6, 
Miss Twinkleton joins Rosa, and then "the days crept 
on. 

Thus the sequence of chapters xvii and xix to xxii 
is perfect. 

I come now to ch. xviii, which, so far, I have 
ignored. "At about this time" Datchery appears at 



The chronology of the extant fragment 13 

Cloisterham, goes to the Crozier, engages lodgings 
at Tope's, makes acquaintance with Sapsea, Jasper, 
Durdles, and Deputy, The position of this chapter 
between ch. xvii and ch. xix, with the opening words 
"At about this time," suggests that Datchery made his 
appearance at Cloisterham on or about June 30 or 
July I, and before the events recorded in ch. xix. But 
there is no obvious connection between Datchery's 
doings in ch. xviii and the consecutive narrative con- 
tained in chapters xvii and xix to xxii. 

Again there is nothing to show what length of time 
has elapsed between ch. xviii and ch. xxiii. In ch. xxiii 
Jasper goes to a hotel near Aldersgate Street, and 
thence to the opium-den, where the old woman draws 
from him the story of his "journey." When Jasper 
leaves, the old woman waits for him, tracks him home, 
and learns his name from Datchery, who gives her 
money. She tells him of her talk with Edwin. 
Datchery questions Deputy about her, and tells him 
to find out where she lives. The next morning at the 
Cathedral she betrays to Datchery and to Deputy 
her animosity against Jasper. And so the fragment 
ends. 

This chronological statement may be thought 
tedious and pedantic. But it suggests that, so far 
as the narrative goes in the twenty-three chapters, 
Dickens has studiously thought out the connection of 
the several incidents included in it, and has not, like 
Scott in Rob Roy, left chronology to take care of 
itself There is however one incident, the appearance 
of Datchery at Cloisterham, which does not, like the 



14 About Edwin Drood 

rest, fall easily and immediately into its place in the 
sequence of events. As has been seen, Datchery ap- 
pears to have gone to the Crozier on or about June 30 
or July I : and, for anything we know thus far, he may 
have done so. But, at present, we have not been able 
to connect his arrival with any of the particular events 
recorded in chapters xvii and xix to xxii. I shall return 
to this matter later. 



§ iii. Jasper's machinations against Edwin 
Drood : chapters i-xiv. 

Very many readers of The Mystery, and amongst 
them Mr Proctor and Mr Lang, hold that Edwin 
Drood escaped with his Hfe : but all or nearly all, 
Mr Proctor and Mr Lang not excepted, acknowledge 
that Jasper tried to murder his nephew and believed 
himself to have succeeded. This being so, I may 
defer what I have to say about Edwin's fate, and 
proceed at once to inquire — (i) Where and how did 
Jasper murder Drood, or attempt to murder him ? 
(2) Where and how did Jasper dispose of Drood's 
body, or attempt to dispose of it ? 

I propose then at this point to review the several 
passages which may be thought to bear upon these 
questions, adding in each case a few sentences of 
comment. 

(i) In ch. iv, meeting Durdles by appointment at 
Sapsea's house, Jasper has an opportunity of examin- 
ing the key of Mr Sapsea's monument and clinking 
it against the keys of two other monuments, p. 50. 
Durdles bids him "take care of the wards," and warns 
him that he "can't make a pitch pipe of 'em." In 



1 6 About Edwin Drood 

ch. V, later in the same evening, Jasper, on his way 
from Sapsea's to the gatehouse, finds Deputy stoning 
Durdles in the neighbourhood of the Cathedral, and 
retracing his steps, brings Durdles to his "house, or 
hole in the city wall," p. 140, near Sapsea's end of 
High Street. As they go, in reply to a direct question 
from Jasper, p. 55, Durdles tells him how, by tapping 
with his hammer, he is able to discover the contents 
of vaults and of the coffins within them. 

Mr Proctor suggests. Watched by the Dead, p. 42, 
and Mr Lang agrees with him, Pjizzle, p. 9, that 
Jasper's purpose in clinking the keys together is to 
learn how to distinguish by the sound Sapsea's key, 
and hence it has been inferred that on the fatal night 
Jasper deposited Drood's body in the Sapsea monu- 
ment. But Durdles' "dogged" explanation, p. 50, 
" When Durdles puts a touch or a finish upon his work, 
no matter where, inside or outside, Durdles likes to 
look at his work all round, and see that his work is 
a-doing him credit," and his account of his "gift," 
p. 56, must surely convince Jasper that any receptacle 
which Durdles could tap with his hammer would be an 
unsatisfactory hiding-place, and that the Sapsea monu- 
ment would be exceptionally so. Hence, though with 
Mr Proctor and Mr Lang I suppose that Jasper had 
thought of depositing the body of his victim in the 
Sapsea monument, I am confident that, for excellent 
reasons, he now abandons this first scheme. 

(2) The arrival of Neville Landless suggests a 
second expedient. In ch. viii " Daggers Drawn," 
Jasper tries to stir up a quarrel between Edwin and 



Jasper and Edwin Drood \y 

Neville, and very nearly succeeds. But at p. 1x7, 
after "close internal calculation," Jasper undertakes to 
arrange a friendly meeting for Christmas Eve with a 
view to a reconciliation. 

That is to say, Jasper had next thought to use 
Neville as his catspaw for the destruction of Edwin. 
But Crisparkle's influence with Neville is strong, and 
Neville himself, though passionate, is generous. So 
Jasper's plot must be again modified : and when, on 
the night of "the unaccountable expedition," p. 141, 
listening to snatches of Crisparkle's talk with Neville, 
he " watches Neville as though his eye were at the 
trigger of a loaded rifle," and presently "bursts into a fit 
of laughter," we have indications of a change in his plan 
of campaign. Presumably his third thought is to make 
away with Edwin in such a manner that Neville, his 
new rival, will be suspected of the crime. 

(3) At the beginning of ch, xxiii, Jasper, replying 
under the influence of opium to the skilful interrogatory 
of the opium-woman, who now knows " how to make 
him talk," p. 276, tells her that over and over again in 
her den he has done something which he had in his 
mind but had not quite determined to do ; that this 
something was "a hazardous and perilous journey over 
abysses where a slip would be destruction " ; that there 
was a fellow-traveller whose presence was indispensable ; 
that the journey was always made in fancy "in the 
same way," "in the way in which it was really made 
at last " ; but that, when it came to be made finally, 
there was " no struggle, no consciousness of peril, no 
entreaty, — and yet I never saw that before." " Look at 

J. 2 



1 8 About Edwin Drood 

it! look what a poor, mean, miserable thing it is! That 
must be real!": and seemingly we may connect with 
these sentences, p. 276, the previous sentence, p. 274, 
" Look down, look down ! you see what lies at the 
bottom there ? " We are not told in ch. xxiii what the 
scene of the journey was : but we may be quite sure 
that it was the tower of Cloisterham Cathedral. For, 
Jasper's words in ch. xxiii "The dawn again," "I 
always made the journey first, before the changes of 
colours and the great landscapes and glittering pro- 
cessions began," echo the first paragraph of ch. i 
"The dawn," and in the first sentence of that first 
paragraph Jasper sees "an ancient English Cathedral 
Tower " strangely dominating his dreams. 

Now when Jasper, while he connects what he had 
in his mind with the doing of it in fancy, distinguishes 
between the doing of it in fancy and the real doing of 
it, it is quite clear that the real doing of it is no mere 
imagination. Furthermore, the opium-woman assumes 
that his babbling is significant ; and we know from her 
conversation with Edwin on Christmas Eve that she 
had already elicited certain important facts, though, for 
want of knowledge of the persons concerned and their 
relations to one another, she had not fully understood 
Jasper's utterances. But, by admission, he is plotting 
the destruction of Drood. This being so, when we 
are told that Jasper had had in his mind the tower 
of the Cathedral, and a perilous journey over abysses 
with an indispensable fellow traveller, and that, when 
the journey was really made, there was " no struggle, no 
consciousness of peril, no entreaty," but that "a poor. 



Jasper and Edwin Drood 19 

mean, miserable thing," which was nevertheless "real," 
lay "down below at the bottom," I am constrained to 
believe that we have here Jasper's confession of 
the place and the manner of the crime. He had 
ascended the tower with Edwin, and he had seen 
Edwin's body lying down below, presumably at the 
foot of the staircase by which they had ascended. 

And when I examine the speculations of Mr Proctor, 
Mr Lang, and Mr Walters, I am confirmed in this 
belief Mr Proctor and Mr Lang suppose that Jasper 
partially strangled Drood near the Cathedral, and then 
deposited his body in the Sapsea monument, from 
which he was rescued, according to Mr Proctor, by 
Durdles, according to Mr Lang, with the help of 
Grewgious. Again, Mr Walters supposes. Clues ^ p. 33, 
that " Drood was to be encountered near the Cathe- 
dral, drugged, and then strangled with the black silk 
scarf that Jasper wore round his own neck." But if 
Edwin was to be strangled or partially strangled out- 
side the Cathedral on level ground, " the perilous 
journey over abysses " which has occupied Jasper's 
thoughts and visions and at last has been realised 
in fact, ceases to be important, or relevant, or in- 
telligible. 

Accordingly Mr Walters, though he refers to "the 
journey " at pp. 28 and 90, makes no attempt to 
explain it, and even tells us, p. 90, that " the old 
woman had made him talk, but his talk was ' unintelli- 
gible.' " We have however a distinct assurance that 
this is not so. For, when Jasper has ceased to be 
talkative, the old woman, Mystery, p. 276, "croaks 



20 About Edwin Drood 

under her breath " — "I heard ye say once, when I was 
lying where you're lying, and you were making your 
speculations upon me, 'Unintelligible!' I heard you 
say so, of two more than me. But don't ye be too sure 
always ; don't ye be too sure, beauty !...Not so potent 
as it once was ? Ah ! Perhaps not at first. You may 
be more right there. Practice makes perfect. I may 
have learnt the secret how to make ye talk, deary." 

Similarly Mr Proctor makes short work with this 
part of ch. xxiii. " We learn afterwards," he says, 
Watched by the Dead, p. 73, " when Jasper goes 
through the scene again under the influence of opium, 
that, though ' there was no struggle, no consciousness 
of peril, no entreaty,' there was something '^\i\Q\\, in his 
many visions of the event before it happened, he had 
never seen. 'I never saw ///«/ before,' he says. But 
this need not necessarily relate to the struggle itself, 
but to Jasper's thoughts of the struggle after he had 
learned from Grewgious how idle had been his villainy." 
That is to say, Mr Proctor ignores the talk about "a 
hazardous and perilous journey over abysses " in com- 
pany with a fellow traveller ; and, as he cannot connect 
the words " I never saw that before " with the attack 
upon Drood, assumes, but does not explain, a reference 
to Jasper's subsequent thoughts about it. 

Mr Lang however faces the question which Mr 
Walters and Mr Proctor evade. Recognising the 
importance of Jasper's mutterings, and perceiving that 
in his theory of Jasper's attempt upon Drood there is 
no room for "the journey over abysses," Mr Lang asks. 
Puzzle, p. 41, "Is part of Jasper's vision reminiscent — 



Jasper and Edwin Drood 21 

the brief, unresisting death — while another part is a 
separate vision, is prospective, ' premonitory ' ? Does 
he see himself pitching Neville Landless off the tower 
top, or see him fallen from the Cathedral roof? Is 
Neville's body 'that' — ' I never saw that before. Look 
what a poor miserable mean thing it is ! That must 
be real.' Jasper never saw that — the dead body below 
the height — before. This vision, I think, is of the 
future, not of the past, and is meant to bewilder the 
reader who thinks that the whole represents the slay- 
ing of Drood." That is to say, Mr Lang supposes 
that the single phrase "no struggle, no consciousness 
of peril, no entreaty " represents a vision reminiscent 
of the attempted murder of Drood ; but that the words 
which are separated from that phrase by no more than 
a hyphen — "and yet I never saw that before," and the 
rest of two pages, 274-276, represent "a separate 
vision," prospective of the capture of Jasper and the 
death of Neville on the Christmas Eve which is still to 
come. Puzzle, pp. 72, 88. For myself, I cannot believe 
that Dickens, however much he may have wished "to 
bewilder the reader," has intruded into babblings which 
represent a prospective, prophetic, vision eight words 
which represent a vision reminiscent of the past : and 
I demur altogether to the theory that "the perilous 
journey over abysses " is a vision of the coming retribu- 
tion. For {a) "the journey" was "something which 
Jasper had in his mind, but had not quite determined to 
do," he had " done it over and over again " in fancy, he 
had made the journey "always in the same way," '* in 
the way in which it was really made at last." Surely 



22 About Edwin Drood 

this is a clear statement that "the journey" belongs to 
the past and not to the future ; (b) what Jasper did 
"was pleasant to do"; he came to the opium-den "on 
purpose to take the journey, to get the relief, and he 
got it." Plainly "the journey" is the crime which 
Jasper hankered after : he could find neither pleasure 
nor relief in the thought of the retribution which is 
hereafter to come upon himself; {c) the echo of the 
first paragraph of the story at p. 275 — " Yes ! I always 
made the journey first, before the changes of colours 
and the great landscapes and glittering processions 
began " — shows that " the journey " which he was to 
make with an indispensable fellow traveller, was in 
Jasper's thoughts before he knew of Landless' existence. 

In short, if Jasper flung or pushed Drood down 
the staircase of the tower, the babblings of the opium- 
den are, as the old woman plainly recognises, p. 276, 
quite intelligible. On the other hand, if Drood was 
attacked outside the Cathedral on level ground, the 
babblings have no meaning whatever, and at best are 
unjustifiable mystifications. 

(4) In ch. xii, "A night with Durdles," Jasper repairs 
to Durdles' " house, or hole in the city wall " near the 
other end of High Street, and chances to hear from him 
of the destructive powers of quicklime. Thence they 
come by Minor Canon Corner to the Close, and enter the 
Cathedral from the crypt, unlocking both the doors with 
a key which belongs to Durdles. Next, opening an iron 
gate with a key "confided to Jasper," presumably by 
the Dean, compare p. 135, they ascend the tower by 
its winding staircase and look down upon Cloisterham, 



Jasper and Edwin Drood 23 

" fair to see in the moonlight." They descend. On the 
way down Durdles, who has emptied Jasper's bottle, 
"has stumbled twice, and cut an eyebrow open once": 
and in the crypt he sleeps long and heavily. Whilst he 
sleeps, Jasper takes from him the key of the crypt, but 
presently brings it back and lays it beside him. Jasper 
remarks upon the strength of "the good stuff," and 
Durdles is at times conscious that Jasper is closely 
scrutinizing him. Four times, pp. 140, 141, 146, 149, 
this expedition is described as "unaccountable": and 
at p. 149 it "comes to an end — for the time." 

Surely this "unaccountable expedition," made with 
Durdles on Dec. 19, is a rehearsal of "the journey" 
which, as we have seen, Jasper proposes to make, and 
actually makes, with the indispensable fellow traveller : 
and presumably the study of the rehearsal will enable 
us to anticipate some details of the tragedy\ From 
the top of the tower Jasper "contemplates the scene, 
and especially that stillest part of it which the Cathedral 
overshadows." Presumably one of his purposes is to 
estimate the suitability of the Close for murder and 
concealment. But I think that the estimate formed 
is unfavourable. "But," we are told, "he contemplates 
Durdles quite as curiously, and Durdles is by times 
conscious of his watchful eyes," p. 146. Indeed, later, 
Durdles asks, " What do you suspect me of. Mister 

^ In Dickens' scanty "Plans" for this chapter he says — "lays 
the ground for the manner of the murder, to come out at last. 
Keep the boy suspended." I understand the last sentence to mean 
that Deputy is not here to be prominent, but that we are to be 
reminded of his existence: compare pp. 148, 149. 



24 About Edwin Drood 

Jarsper ? Let them as has any suspicions of Durdles 
name 'em." " I've no suspicions of you, my good 
Mr Durdles," says Jasper. I think that Jasper's reply 
is truthful. He had been anxious to know whether 
the "good stuff" was potent enough to serve its 
purpose ; and, whether Durdles has any suspicion 
of him and his designs. He is now satisfied both of 
the potency of the "good stuff" and of Durdles' in- 
nocence of any suspicion : Durdles is too drunk to be 
dangerous. 

Meanwhile, as has been seen, when they descend 
into the crypt he "has stumbled twice, and cut an eye- 
brow open once." Durdles' disasters are suggestive. 
Arrived in the crypt, Durdles sleeps, but Jasper has 
more things than one to attend to. Plainly, he must 
make a wax impression of the key with which Durdles 
has opened the outside door of the crypt and the door 
between the crypt and the Cathedral : and accordingly 
we are given to understand that Jasper took the key 
from him while he slept and restored k before he 
awoke. Again, Jasper had to find a place in which 
the body of his victim might safely be bestowed. 
He has already perceived that the Sapsea monument, 
or indeed any other tomb accessible to Durdles' 
hammer, would be a very unsatisfactory hiding place. 
Moreover, he knows that, however lonely the Close 
may be, it would be difficult and dangerous to trans- 
port a corpse from place to place outside the Cathedral. 
Could he find a place of concealment within it ? Now 
it is inconceivable that Durdles, whenever as " con- 
tractor for rough repairs " he wanted material for use 



Jasper mid Edwin Drood 25 

at the Cathedral, went to fetch it from his yard at the 
other end of the town : he must have had ready to 
hand, and therefore presumably in the crypt, wood, 
stone, bricks, mortar, quicklime, and so forth. Indeed, 
Mr Edwin Harris tells me that, when Edwin Drood 
was written, the unpaved floor of the crypt was "littered 
with fragments of monuments, heaps of rubbish, and 
building materials." Let us suppose then that Jasper, 
as he walks to and fro " among the lanes of light," 
finds a mound of lime similar to that which Durdles in 
his yard had described as "quick enough to eat your 
boots : with a little handy stirring, quick enough to eat 
your bones." To make away with the body of the 
victim would be better than to deposit it where it 
might be found : Durdles' hammer could do nothing 
against a heap of lime : and no casual passer-by could 
watch what was done in the crypt. The scheme is 
now complete. Drood, under the influence of strong 
drink is to be flung or pushed down the winding stair- 
case of the tower, and his body is to be deposited in a 
mound of quicklime in the crypt of the Cathedral. 
Moreover, Jasper has made himself acquainted with 
the route which he is to take : he has ascended and 
descended the staircase, and has noted the places where 
Durdles stumbled : he has observed the effects pro- 
duced upon Durdles by the strong drink : having, no 
doubt, already taken an impression of the key of the 
iron gate, he has now taken one of the key of the 
crypt : somewhere in the crypt he has discovered a 
heap of quicklime. In short, with Durdles for corpus 
vile, Jasper has rehearsed in all its details "the journey," 



26 About Edwin Drood 

that Is to say, the ascent of the tower, which he Is to 
make with Edwin on the following Saturday, Dec. 24. 
" The expedition " of Dec. 19 Is then for us no longer 
"unaccountable." 

On the other hand, If Edwin was to be attacked 
In the Close or In the churchyard, and his body was to 
be hidden in the Sapsea monument, it is not easy to 
see why Jasper should make a careful study of the 
tower. Mr Lang Indeed suggests that "It Is for the 
purpose of discovering whether the coast be clear or 
not, that Jasper climbs the tower," Puzzle, p. 20 : It Is 
not until Jasper " has made sure of the utterly deserted 
character of the area by observations from the tower 
top" that he can venture "to convey several wheel- 
barrowfuls of quicklime from Durdles' yard to Mrs 
Sapsea's sepulchre." For myself, I do not understand 
how observations made from the top of the tower could 
give Jasper any assurance that he will not be seen In 
the churchyard, and I demur altogether to the hypo- 
thesis which Mr Lang shares with Mr Proctor, that 
Jasper brought quicklime In a wheelbarrow from one 
end of Clolsterham to the other. Any one who is 
acquainted with Rochester will perceive that the route 
through the Monks' Vineyard would have dangers as 
great as those of the route along the High Street, 
though no doubt of a different kind. 

(5) In the narrative of the events of Dec. 24, 
ch. xiv, we are told, p. 172, that "the mere mechanism 
of Jasper's throat Is a little tender, for he wears, both 
with his singing-robe and with his ordinary dress, a 
large black scarf of strong close-woven silk, slung 



Jasper mid Edwin Drood 27 

loosely round his neck": yet Crisparkle notes that he 
"is in beautiful voice this day," and compliments him 
upon it. Again, at p. 174, when Jasper goes to join 
his guests, "he pauses for an instant... to pull off that 
great black scarf, and hang it in a loop upon his arm. 
For that brief time, his face is knitted and stern." 
That this " large black scarf of strong close- woven 
silk " was important. Sir Luke Fildes immediately 
recognised (Mr W. R. Hughes, quoted by Mr Walters, 
Clues, p. 38) : and I have no doubt whatever that the 
expositors are right in making it the instrument of 
the crime. But I dispute Mr Lang's contention, p. 41, 
that, if Jasper strangled, or rather, tried to strangle, 
Drood with the scarf, those phrases in ch, xxiii which 
imply a fall from a height can have no reference to the 
attempted murder, and are therefore prophetic of what 
is to come on the day of retribution. On the contrary, 
it seems to me that Jasper, if he intended to fling or 
push his nephew down the steep, narrow, staircase of 
the Cathedral tower, would throw the scarf over his 
victim's head ; and that when, having thus precluded 
"struggle, consciousness of peril, entreaty," he pro- 
ceeded to remove the lifeless or apparently lifeless body 
from the foot of the staircase to the heap of quicklime 
in the crypt, the scarf would have a further utility. 

My theory is then, in brief, as follows. When Drood 
returned to the gatehouse not long after midnight on 
Christmas Eve, Jasper, having hospitably pressed upon 
him some of his "good stuff," proposed a visit to the 
Cathedral tower, and Drood was nothing loth. As they 
descended the staircase of the tower, Jasper threw his 



28 About Edwin Drood 

scarf over Drood's head, and, having thus silenced, 
blinded, and disabled, him, pushed him down the steep 
stairs \ Drood, if he was not killed, was stunned by 
the fall. Jasper dragged the body into the crypt, and, 
having removed from it the watch and the shirt-pin, 
buried it in the heap of quicklime. 

It will be seen that in this statement I am careful 
not to assume that Edwin is dead : for, though I find 
it difficult to imagine the manner of his escape, I 
recognise that Dickens may have a surprise in 
store for us, and I know that others who are better 
acquainted with his manner than I am are strongly of 
opinion that this is so. There is however one thing of 
which I am very sure : Grewgious did not at this point 
come upon the scene, hear from Edwin his story, and 
receive the betrothal ring again into his keeping. 
For, first, as has been seen, Grewgious was not at 
Cloisterham ; secondly, however lamely Edwin might 
tell his tale, it must needs have come out, that, after he 
left Landless, he had been in Jasper's company, whilst 
the rest of the extant narrative suggests that, though 
Grewgious has reasons for distrusting, disliking, and 
even hating, Jasper, he has at present nothing which 

' On the morning of Christmas Day, workmen, led by Durdles, 
went aloft to ascertain the extent of the damage done by the storm 
upon the summit of the great tower. I should like to know whether 
Durdles noticed anything unusual in the staircase or in the crypt. 
I fancy that he found traces of the crime ; but, in consequence of 
the alarm raised by Jasper, failed to appreciate their importance, 
and for the moment told no one of them. If he afterwards took 
Datchery into his confidence, Datchery would see the significance 
of the story. 



Jasper and Edwin Drood 29 

directly connects him with Drood's disappearance ; 
thirdly, I cannot beUeve that Grewgious would have 
suffered Landless to remain under suspicion, when it 
was easy to clear him ; fourthly, I do not see why 
Grewgious, having recovered the ring, should not at 
once make use of it for the conviction of the would-be 
murderer. 

Here then for the present I leave the study of 
Jasper's machinations against Edwin Drood. 



§ iv. Jasper s machinations against Neville 
Landless: chapters xv — xvii and xix — xxii. 

Jasper's scheme, as now finally arranged, is then 
to make away with Drood in such a manner that 
Neville will be suspected of having murdered him. 
Accordingly in ch. xv, when Neville is pursued and 
arrested, Jasper studiously aggravates the case against 
him. Then comes the news that Edwin and Rosa 
have broken off their engagement. Hereupon Jasper 
withdraws, for the moment, the suggestion that Edwin 
has been murdered : "he may have disappeared of his 
own accord, and may yet be alive and well," p. 190. 
The next day however Crisparkle discovers Drood's 
watch and shirt-pin at the Weir, placed there, presum- 
ably, by Jasper: and, when at length Neville is released 
and leaves Cloisterham, Jasper shows Crisparkle an 
entry in his diary in which he affirms his conviction, 
based upon Crisparkle's discovery of the watch and 
shirt-pin, that Drood has been murdered, and solemnly 
records his intention of fastening the crime upon the 
murderer, p. 197. In short, having disposed of Drood, 
Jasper now intrigues against his other rival. 

In the narrative outlined in the foregoing para- 
graph there is an incident which, though, so far as 



Jasper and Neville Landless 31 

I know, the expositors have neglected it, seems to call 
for comment. On leaving Grewgious and Jasper, 
Crisparkle "walked to Cloisterham Weir." "He often 
did so, and consequently there was nothing remarkable 
in his footsteps tending that way. But the preoccupa- 
tion of his mind so hindered him from planning any 
walk, or taking heed of the objects he passed, that his 
first consciousness of being near the Weir was derived 
from the sound of the falling water close at hand. 
'How did I come here!' was his first thought, as he 
stopped. * Why did I come here ! ' was his second. 
Then he stood intently listening to the water. A 
familiar passage in his reading, about airy tongues 
that syllable men's names, rose so unbidden to his ear, 
that he put it from him with his hand, as if it were 
tangible." Surely Crisparkle thinks of the familiar 
quotation because, in answer to his two questions — 
" How did I come here ! " " Why did I come here ! " — 
he seems to hear a man's name, the name of John 
Jasper. Now we know already that Jasper has an 
uncanny faculty of hypnotic suggestion, which he seeks 
to exercise upon Rosa : see in particular pp. 74, 79 \ 
We are, I think, to understand that, having already 
left the watch and shirt-pin at the Weir, he now uses 
his mesmeric power to send Crisparkle to find them 
there. He has planned this before Crisparkle arrives. 
Hence it is that, when Grewgious tells him of the 
rupture of the engagement, he can afford to find in the 

^ Mr J. W. Wilson {Dickenstan, iv, 103) notes Jasper's mesmeric 
power, but apparently has not observed that it explains Crisparkle's 
visits to the Weir on December 27, 28. 



32 About Edwin Drood 

news " crumbs of comfort " : Crisparkle's discovery of 
the watch and shirt-pin will justify him in resuming 
his operations against Neville. 

And now half a year passes, and the interest in 
Drood's disappearance begins to die away. When the 
story is resumed, we find Neville established at Staple 
Inn under the eye of Grewgious. Jasper has taken 
a room there, and keeps an ostentatious watch upon 
Neville, *' which," says Crisparkle, " would not only of 
itself haunt and torture his life, but would expose him 
to the torment of a perpetually reviving suspicion, 
whatever he might do, or wherever he might go," 
p. 209 ; compare p. 253. Meanwhile, in ch. xix, Jasper 
seeks to compel Rosa's acceptance of his addresses by 
telling her that it is his intention to fasten the death 
of Edwin upon Neville : " It was hawked through the 
late inquiries by Mr Crisparkle, that young Landless 
had confessed to him that he was a rival of my lost 
boy. That is an inexpiable offence in my eyes. The 
same Mr Crisparkle knows under my hand that I 
have devoted myself to the murderer's discovery and 
destruction, be he whom he might, and that I deter- 
mined to discuss the mystery with no one until I should 
hold the clue in which to entangle the murderer as in 
a net. I have since worked patiently to wind and 
wind it round him ; and it is slowly winding as I 
speak,"..." Circumstances may accumulate so strongly 
even against a^i innocent man, that directed, sharpened, 
and pointed, they may slay him. One wanting link 
discovered by perseverance against a guilty man, 
proves his guilt, however slight its evidence before. 



Jasper and Neville Landless 33 

and he dies. Young Landless stands in deadly peril 
either way," pp. 226, 227. 

Thus in this second act of the drama Jasper is 
plotting against Neville with a ferocity as great as 
that which he had shown against Edwin in the first 
act : and, when Rosa flies to Staple Inn, she comes to 
Grewgious, not, to tell him that she has begun to 
suspect Jasper of the murder of his nephew, but, 
to ask Grewgious for protection for herself, and to 
warn him of the intrigue against Neville, p. 236. 
Accordingly, the next morning, July 4, it is decided 
that Rosa shall remain in London, and that Tartar 
shall visit Neville openly and often, in the hope that, 
"if the purpose really is to isolate Neville from all 
friends and acquaintance and wear his daily life out 
grain by grain," Jasper will enter into communications 
with Tartar and thus show his hand, p. 253, In a 
word, the purpose of the Staple Inn alliance is, not, 
to penetrate the mystery of Edwin's disappearance, 
but, to protect Rosa and Neville, 

Nevertheless, it will be well to collect such notices 
as Dickens has given us of the attitude of the allies 
towards the mystery of Edwin Drood. Rosa, pp. 232, 
233, suspects Jasper of having murdered Edwin, but 
distrusts her suspicion and keeps it to herself. That 
suspicion "appeared to have no harbour in Mr Cris- 
parkle's imagination," p. 270. " If it ever haunted 
Helena's thoughts or Neville's, neither gave it one 
spoken word of utterance," p. 270. "Mr Grewgious 
took no pains to conceal his implacable dislike of 
Jasper, yet he never referred it, however distantly, to 

J. 3 



34 About Edwin Drood 

such a source," p. 270. It may be worth while to add 
that Grewgious' dislike of Jasper dates from the pre- 
ceding Christmas. For, whereas in the conversation 
early in December, ch. ix, Grewgious betrays neither 
suspicion nor coldness, when they meet again on the 
night of December 27, p. 183, Grewgious is "curt," 
"cool," "exasperating," "provokingly slow," in telling 
his news, and his refusal of Jasper's invitation to eat 
with him, p. 188, is a hardly veiled insult. But there 
is nothing to show whether Grewgious' present abhor- 
rence of Jasper is caused by the disappearance of 
Drood or by something independent of it. It is 
possible, that Grewgious has heard from the two girls 
enough about Jasper's feelings towards Rosa to sus- 
pect him of having murdered his rival : but it is also 
conceivable that something wholly independent of 
the Cloisterham mystery has satisfied Grewgious that 
Jasper is " a brigand and a wild beast in combination," 
P- 253. 

It would seem then that, whatever the several 
members of the Staple Inn alliance may privately 
think about Edwin's disappearance, no one of them 
has broached to any other the suspicion that he has 
been made away with by Jasper. This being so, it is 
quite certain that no two of them have set a watch upon 
Jasper at Cloisterham in the hope of penetrating the 
mystery of Edwin's disappearance. Again, Grewgious 
knows what Jasper means him to know, namely, that 
Neville is watched at Staple Inn : but, until Rosa 
arrives on the night of July 3 with the story of her 
talk with Jasper on the afternoon of that day, there is 



Jasper and Neville Landless 35 

nothing beyond conjecture to explain Jasper's policy 
in regard to Neville, and nothing whatever to show 
that his persecution of Rosa is not at an end. Accord- 
ingly, at the conference on July 4, the defence of 
Neville and Rosa appears to be discussed as a res 
Integra. We cannot then suppose that, in the interest 
of Neville and Rosa, Grewgious has already sent an 
agent to observe Jasper's doings at Cloisterham. 

Yet, between ch. xvii, which recounts how Cris- 
parkle visited Grewgious and Neville on June 2>^, 
and ch. xix, which describes the stormy conversation 
between Rosa and Jasper on July 3, we have a chapter 
headed ''A settler in Cloisterham," which tells how, 
"at about this time," that is to say, June 30 or July i, 
"Mr Datchery" established himself in Mrs Tope's 
lodgings with the intention, made quite clear to the 
reader, of watching Jasper at Cloisterham. Further, 
Datchery, whoever he may be, does not represent the 
opium-woman, who for reasons not known to us is also 
on the watch ; for in ch. xxiii Datchery observes her 
gestures with surprise and amazement : and, if he does 
not represent the opium-woman, his point of view 
must needs be that of Grewgious and his friends. 
Yet, as has been seen, before July 4 Grewgious and 
his friends can hardly have taken the field, either 
offensively with a view to the discovery of the murderer 
or would-be murderer of Edwin Drood, or defensively 
with a view to the protection of Neville and Rosa. In 
a word, Datchery seems to be a representative or 
agent of the Staple Inn allies ; but it is inconceivable 
that they should have had a representative or agent at 

3—2 



36 About Edwin Drood 

Cloisterham on Friday June 30 or Saturday July i. 
On the other hand, the appearance of such a repre- 
sentative or agent on any day subsequent to the Staple 
Inn conference, say on July 5 or July 6, is exactly 
what we should expect. Let us suppose that, while 
Tartar will get into touch with Jasper when he visits 
Staple Inn, Datchery, whoever he may be, is to observe 
Jasper's movements when he is at Cloisterham. This 
is an intelligible scheme ; whereas the conference is 
strangely ineffective, if its sole result is that Tartar is 
told off to verify Crisparkle's conjectural explanation 
of Jasper's visits to Staple Inn, especially as that 
explanation has now been justified by Jasper's words 
to Rosa. 

But if the tenour of the principal narrative forces 
upon us, as I think it does, the conviction that the 
episode contained in ch. xviii is subsequent to the 
events recorded in chs. xix to xxii, the awkward facts 
remain that ch. xviii, " A settler in Cloisterham," is 
interposed between ch. xvii and chs. xix to xxii, and 
that the opening words " At about this time " should 
mean, not *' about July 5 or 6," but "about June 30 or 
July I." How is the. discrepancy to be explained? 

My conviction is that ch. xviii has been introduced 
prematurely, that is to say, that it ought to have 
followed ch. xxii ; and that if Dickens had lived to 
issue the fifth and sixth monthly instalments, he would 
have placed our ch. xviii, without the alteration of a 
single word, after ch. xxii, next before ch. xxiii. 

This will seem an audacious hypothesis. There is, 
however, a tradition which seems to show that Dickens 



Jasper and Neville Landless 2>1 

was aware of the oversight. Forster tells us, Life, 
iii, 429 f., that " Dickens had become a little nervous 
about the course of the tale, from a fear that he might 
have plunged too soon into the incidents leading on 
to the catastrophe, such as the Datchery assumption 
in the fifth number (a misgiving he had certainly- 
expressed to his sister-in-law)." Dickens may well 
have been nervous about the future organisation of a 
difficult story which had to be cut up into lengths for 
periodical publication: but I suspect that his "mis- 
giving" about "the Datchery assumption" was due to 
the discovery, not that there was any error in the 
structure of the story, for there was none, but that in 
telling it he had introduced Datchery some five days 
too soon. If, as appears, Dickens was in the habit of 
reading what he had written to his friends, he would 
perceive, as soon as he came to ch. xix, that ch. xviii 
was out of place. 

In short, I suppose the chronology of these chapters 
to be as follows. On Friday, June 30, Crisparkle visits 
Grewgious and Neville, ch. xvii. On Saturday, July i. 
Miss Twinkleton's school breaks up. On Monday, 
July 3, Helena comes to London, and Rosa, after 
her talk with Jasper, follows her, chs. xix, xx. On 
Tuesday, July 4, Crisparkle and Tartar appear, and 
the Staple Inn conference is held, chs. xxi, xxii. 
Then, on Wednesday, July 5, or Thursday, July 6, 
Datchery begins his watch at Cloisterham, ch. xviii : 
and in ch. xxiii he continues it. 



§ V. Datchery : chapters xviii and xxiii. 

We have seen that "at about this time," — that is 
to say, if the chapter called "A settler in Cloisterham" 
is correctly placed between ch. xvii and ch. xix, about 
June 30 or July i, but, if I am right in my contention 
that this chapter should immediately precede ch. xxiii, 
about July 5 or July 6, — one Dick Datchery estab- 
lished himself at Cloisterham. Ostensibly he is "a 
single buffer " who proposes to make a home for him- 
self there : but from the outset the reader is allowed 
to see that the newcomer's business is to watch Jasper 
and to collect information about him. The conversa- 
tions with Mrs Tope, p. 216, with Sapsea, pp. 218, 
219, and with the opium-woman, pp. 280 ff., prove 
Datchery's keen interest in Jasper and his doings. 
The "change of countenance," "the sudden look," 
and "the reddening," pp. 282, 283, suggest that at 
this point Datchery suspects that the opium-woman 
may have something to tell : and her gestures in the 
cathedral and the few sentences exchanged after the 
service, pp. 286, 287, assure him that he is not 
mistaken. 

But who is Datchery } Is he, as a writer in the 
Cornhill Magazine, March 1 884, supposes, an ordinary 



Datchery 39 

detective, employed in the course of business by 
Grewgious ? Or, is he an extraordinary detective, 
some one who has his private reasons for desiring to 
unravel the plot ? I cannot think that he is any 
ordinary detective: for (i) whereas the ordinary de- 
tective would naturally seek to lose himself in the 
crowd, Datchery is unusual, eccentric, conspicuous ; 
(2) the ample wig is plainly a disguise, and Datchery's 
forgetfulness of it seems to indicate that he is not in 
the habit of disguising himself; (3) his whole bearing 
is that of a principal and not of a subordinate. Let 
us suppose then that he is an extraordinary detective, 
some one personally interested in the case. Now 
"the moderate stroke" which he scores up in his 
cupboard, p. 285, after his first conversation with the 
opium-woman, suggests that he has hitherto known 
nothing about her and her acquaintance with Jasper, 
and that as yet he is not sure that her curiosity is in 
any way significant. On the other hand, "the thick 
line added to the score, extending from the top of the 
cupboard door to the bottom," p. 287, implies, not only 
that the old woman's animosity against Jasper is to 
Datchery a discovery, but also that it seems to him an 
important fact. Thus Datchery has hitherto known 
nothing about Jasper's hidden life, not even as much 
as Dickens has disclosed to his readers in the first 
chapter : whence it appears that Datchery comes to 
the inquiry, not, as the opium-woman seems to do, 
from the point of view of Jasper's past, but, like 
Grewgious and his allies, from the point of view of 
Jasper's present. Now, if Dickens has dealt fairly 



40 About Edwin Drood 

with us, we know by this time all the people who are 
directly interested in the Cloisterham mystery. If, 
besides the personages who have been introduced to 
us, there had been any one else directly interested in 
it, we should at any rate have heard of him. But we 
know of no one of the sort, and therefore I conclude 
that the extraordinary detective, personally interested 
in the case, who comes to it from the point of view of 
the Cloisterham mystery, must needs be some one who 
is already on the stage. 

Now a genius may masquerade as a fool and a 
courtier as a clown : but a fool cannot at will play the 
part of a genius, nor a clown that of a courtier. As 
Aristotle might say, capacity can ape incapacity, but 
incapacity cannot ape capacity. This being so, I am 
sure that Bazzard, who is not only "particularly 
angular," p. 102, but also somnolent, dull, incompetent, 
egotistical, is wholly incapable of playing the part of 
the supple, quick-witted, resolute, dignified, Datchery. 
So I confidently reject the theory of the ingenious 
authors of John Jasper s Secret, that Datchery is 
Bazzard \ 

Grewgious, no doubt, has both resolution and 
ability. But the man who is constitutionally cautious, 

' Since this was written, Mr Edwin Charles, in his Keys to the 
Edwin Drood Mystery, has sketched a conclusion for the story on 
the hypothesis that Datchery is Bazzard. The objection — to my 
mind the fatal objection — is that Mr Charles' Bazzard, who directs 
the campaign against Jasper, is not the somnolent, dull, incompetent, 
egotistical, Bazzard to whom Dickens has introduced us. It may 
well be that Grewgious is employing Bazzard in the subordinate task 
of obtaining facts about Jasper's past history. 



Datchery 41 

and consciously, though perhaps only superficially, 
"angular," does not suddenly become ready, adroit, 
and versatile. Moreover, his business detains him in 
town ; and he presently finds work to do for the 
common cause in watching Jasper's appearances at 
Staple Inn. Hence, Datchery is not Grewgious. 

Nor can I think that Edwin Drood, if still alive, is 
capable of this great role. Boyish, kindly, and, so far 
as his limitations permit, considerate, he has neither 
the intellect nor the will nor the address of Datchery ; 
see pp. 26, 38, 114, 152, 169. He differs from 
Datchery as a schoolboy differs from a diplomatist. 
In the parting with Rosa we see Edwin "at his best," 
and the discovery of Jasper's treachery might have a 
stimulating effect upon his character and intelligence : 
but it could not raise him above "his best," it could 
not evoke qualities in which he is conspicuously 
deficient. For this reason, to say nothing of others, 
I confidently reject the theory of Mr Proctor and 
Mr Lang that Datchery is Drood. 

Again, Datchery is not Tartar. For, first, at the 
Staple Inn conference duties are assigned to Tartar 
which will keep him constantly in town: "If Mr Tartar 
would call to see him" [Neville] "openly and often" 
says Helena, p. 253 ; "if he would spare a minute for 
the purpose, frequently ; if he would even do so, 
almost daily; something might come of it." Secondly, 
Tartar does not possess the knowledge of Cloisterham 
and the Drood mystery which Datchery ought to 
possess and actually possesses. Thirdly, I doubt 
whether the cheery, straightforward, simple-minded. 



42 About Edwin Drood 

Tartar is capable of Datchery's versatility, subtlety, 
and address \ 

Nor is Datchery Neville Landless. For, in their 
consideration for his feelings, the allies have not 
admitted him to their deliberations, and are hardly 
likely to make him their principal agent. 

In fact, to use Bazzard's phrase, I "follow" 
Mr Walters in his demonstration, pp. 51 — 59, that 
Datchery is not Bazzard, Drood, or Grewgious, and 
in his corollary, that, with the exception of Helena 
Landless, none of the personages already on the 
stage is capable of this exacting role. This part of 
Mr Walters' argument seems to me so cogent and so 
lucidly expressed that I am content with this barest 
possible statement of the reasons for my acceptance 
of it. 

Again, I "follow" Mr Walters in much of his 
positive argument for the identification of Datchery 
with Helena. In my opinion {a) such phrases as the 
author's "Let whomsoever it most concerned look well 
to it!" p. 79, and Helena's "Not under any circum- 
stances " in reply to Edwin's " You would be afraid 
of him, under similar circumstances, wouldn't you. 
Miss Landless .-*" p. 74, indicate that Dickens meant 
Helena to take a prominent part in defending Neville 
and Rosa and in unmasking Jasper; {p) Dickens has 
been studiously careful to endow Helena with the 
resolution, the presence of mind, and the address, 
which Datchery requires for his task, and possesses in 

' For an excellent presentation of "the case for Tartar," see 
Mr G. F. Gadd's paper with this title in the Dicke?isia/i, ii, 13. 



Datchery 43 

perfection ; (c) when once Jasper has declared his 
hostility to Neville, Helena would not be the Helena 
who is described to us at p. 207 and elsewhere, if she 
did not take the field in Neville's defence. These are 
the considerations which principally weigh with me in 
at any rate a provisional acceptance of Mr Walters' 
original and attractive conjecture. 

Nevertheless there are some of Mr Walters' 
" proofs " which I should not care to insist upon, and 
there are others which seem to me to break down. 
Thus, {a) whereas Mr Walters thinks that Datchery 's 
mismanagement of his head-gear proves him to be a 
woman, Clues, pp. 63 — 65, I doubt whether it estab- 
lishes more than that Datchery wore a wig, and 
was an amateur detective, unaccustomed to disguise : 
(b) whereas Mr Walters, Clues, p. 81, supposes 
Datchery to call on Mrs Tope and not on Mr Tope 
because "a woman would prefer to call on another 
woman," he forgets that at p. 214 the waiter has 
spoken of Mrs Tope as having "once upon a time let 
lodgings or offered to let them," and has referred to 
Mr Tope, not as letting lodgings, but only as con- 
nected with the Cathedral : {c) I cannot think with 
Mr Walters, Clues, p. 83, that Datchery scored in 
chalk because " the woman would have been betrayed 
by her penmanship" ; surely Datchery, whether male or 
female, might represent results graphically : {d) whereas 
Mr Walters, Clues, p. 85, argues that " Dickens does 
not represent Helena and Jasper as exchanging a 
single word," so that her "rich and low" tones were 
not familiar to him, the story of the dinner party in 



44 About Edwin Drood 

ch. vii, see especially p. 74, hardly warrants Mr Walters* 
"strange fact": {e) whereas Mr Walters, Clues, pp. 78, 
79, regards Grewgious' doubtful reply, p. 242, to Rosa's 
"I may go to Helena to-morrow ?" as an admission 
that Helena was not then at Staple Inn, Grewgious' 
hesitation, explained p. 247, is, as Mr Lang, Puzzle, 
p. 39, points out, perfectly reasonable, and ceases the 
next day, only because, by the help of Tartar, the two 
girls can now meet without Jasper's knowledge. These 
arguments then I set aside as inconclusive : but if, as I 
think, they do' not help Mr Walters' case, neither do 
they prejudice it. 

There is however another of Mr Walters' proofs 
which may, I think, be turned against him with deadly 
effect ; and indeed, if properly enlarged and justified, 
might even seem to be conclusive against the Datchery- 
Helena theory. Commenting on the conversation 
between Helena and Rosa in ch. xxii, see especially 
p. 253, Mr Walters, Clues, p. 80, writes as follows : 

" Helena's conduct at this point is also worth scrutinising. She 
at once conceives a scheme for checkmating Jasper, and pertinently 
inquires whether ' it would be best to wait until any more maligning 
and pursuing of Neville on the part of this wretch shall disclose 
itself, or to try to anticipate it?' She is in full activity. She is 
prepared, not to begin operations, but to conclude them if necessary. 
Dickens at this point had revealed her hand, and then, for the rest 
of the story, he spirits her away. After this important conference 
Helena Landless vanishes from the story. But Dick Datchery 
reappears in Cloisterham ! " 

That is to say, Mr Walters supposes that, when 
Helena has already begun operations at Cloisterham 
in the character of Datchery, she is in London, and 



Datchery 45 

tells Rosa to send Crisparkle to ask Grewgious whether 
" it would be best to try to anticipate " Jasper's pursuit 
of Neville, " so far as to find out whether any such 
goes on darkly about us " : Grewgious enthusiastically 
assents : Helena arranges with Rosa that Tartar shall 
visit Neville : the girls part : " Dick Datchery re- 
appears in Cloisterham." Seemingly Mr Walters 
regards this as a consistent scheme. I do not. The 
words used by Mr Walters himself are noteworthy : 
" She at once conceives a scheme for checkmating 
Jasper." If "she at once conceives a scheme," she has 
not already conceived it : and it must be remembered 
that she could not have conceived it sooner; for it was 
only on the previous afternoon that Jasper, in his 
interview with Rosa, had used the threatening words 
which suggest Helena's inquiry, and it was only on 
this very morning that Helena heard of them from 
Rosa. Yet, according to Mr Walters, Helena has 
already been doing at Cloisterham in the character of 
Datchery exactly what she now for the first time 
resolves to do. The truth is that, if Datchery is 
already at work at Cloisterham, he is not Helena : 
and that if Datchery is Helena, she does not begin 
work at Cloisterham till after the conference at Staple 
Inn on July \^. 

' It is worth while to note that exactly this argument is used by 
Mr Walters to show (a) that Datchery is not Grewgious ; " Datchery 
appeared in Cloisterham before Mr Grewgious knew from Rosa's 
own lips how serious the state of affairs had become, and how 
necessary it was to keep a close watch upon Jasper," Clues, p. 56 : 
and {b) that Datchery is not Bazzard, Clues, p. 52; "But if Grewgious 
had given him " [BazzardJ " this task, and been credulous enough to 



46 About Edwin Drood 

When I first read Mr Walters' ClueSy this objection 
to the Datchery- Helena theory seemed to me insuper- 
able. Everything else appeared to designate Helena 
for Datchery's task ; but if Datchery was watching 
Jasper at pp. 213 — 221, before Helena received the 
information which led her at p. 253 to suggest setting 
a watch, how could Datchery be Helena .-* And when 
I proceeded to work out the chronology of the story, 
I felt the difficulty all the more. On Friday, June 30, 
pp. 206, 207, Crisparkle implies that Helena has been, 
and still is, at Cloisterham, living her usual life, and he 
says explicitly that next week she will join Neville at 
Staple Inn, apparently for a long visit. Accordingly 
on Monday, July 3, she comes to town. Now if 
Helena was at Miss Twinkleton's on Friday and came 
to town on the following Monday, this leaves barely 
three days in which she could have played the part of 
Datchery. Plainly the time is too short, even for a 
preliminary reconnaissance. Moreover, as we know, 
Datchery proposes "to take a lodging in the picturesque 
old city for a month or two." Thus, once more, if 
Datchery is already at work, he is not Helena. 

But if, as in the preceding chapter I have en- 
deavoured to show, Datchery did not appear at 

think him capable of performing it, he could not have sent him to 
Cloisterham until after he had heard Rosa's story of Jasper's perfidy. 
Yet Datchery had been in Cloisterham before that time — that is, 
before either Grewgious or Bazzard knew of the urgent need for 
placing Jasper under supervision." Now if this argument is good 
to show that Datchery is neither Grewgious nor Bazzard, it is equally 
good to show that Datchery is not Helena. It is a little strange 
that Mr Walters has overlooked this obvious criticism. 



Datchery 47 

Cloisterham till after the Staple Inn conference on 
Tuesday, July 4, the identification of Datchery with 
Helena presents no difficulty whatever. In ch. xvii 
Crisparkle and Neville talk of Helena as still, Friday, 
June 30, at Cloisterham, but as about to join Neville 
in London on Monday, July 3, for a long stay, and 
Grewgious shows Crisparkle that Jasper is on the 
watch at Staple Inn. In ch. xix Jasper frightens 
Rosa with his wild threats. In ch. xx Rosa flies to 
Grewgious. In ch. xxi Tartar appears. In ch. xxii, 
early on Tuesday, July 4, Rosa tells Helena of Jasper's 
designs against Neville, and Helena raises the ques- 
tion whether it would be well to try to anticipate them. 
Grewgious assents. The sequence of events points 
unmistakably to one result, namely, Helena's return to 
Cloisterham in disguise on July 5 or 6, to begin a 
watch upon Jasper's movements. 

Now it can be shown that, though Helena had con- 
templated a long stay at Staple Inn, she left London 
very soon after the conference. For, unquestionably, 
if she had remained there, we should have heard that 
"the pretty girl at Billickin's " was visited by a dark 
girl whose occasional presence encouraged and en- 
livened her in " the gritty state of things." As we 
hear of nothing of the sort, we may be quite sure that 
Helena is no longer in town. And there is another proof 
of this. When the serious business of the conference 
is over, Rosa in answer to a question tells Helena 
that she will not go back to Miss Twinkleton's at 
Cloisterham, and that her guardian will take care of 
her. Hereupon Helena inquires : " And I shall hear 



48 About Edwin Drood 

of my Rosebud from Mr Tartar ?" Now, if Helena is 
to hear of Rosa from Tartar, and Tartar and Rosa are 
to be in town, surely Helena has made up her mind to 
leave London. And, if she is not in town, presumably 
she is at Cloisterham. What she saw and did and 
said there, is, I conceive, recorded in chapters xviii 
and xxiii. 

Mr Walters' theory is however open to certain 
objections, and I must now say something in reply 
to them. In the first place it is urged that Datchery's 
manner is conspicuously unlike Helena's: "What is 
most unlike the stern, fierce, sententious Helena," 
says Mr Lang, Ptizz/e, p. 2)7i "is Datchery's habit of 
'chaffing\' He fools the ass of a Mayor, Sapsea, by 
most exaggerated deference: his tone is always that 
of indolent mockery, which one doubts whether the 
'intense' and concentrated Helena could assume." But 
if Datchery is Helena, I do not expect to find between 
them resemblances of manner. We are told that in 
early days Helena had disguised herself as a boy, and 
we are o;iven to understand that she was able and 
resourceful. We are, I think, to give her credit for a 
real histrionic gift. If this is so, I expect her to invent 
for Datchery a well-defined personality, wholly unlike 
her own ; to supply him with a sufficiency of tricks and 

' We know that Dickens chose " a habit of chaffing " to be the 
characteristic of his detective before he determined the detective's 
age and physique: for "the young man," Poker, in the rejected 
chapter plays with Sapsea in the same way that Datchery does, 
and uses phrases which would have been quite appropriate in the 
mouth of Datchery. 



Datchery 49 

mannerisms ; and to sustain the part effectively and 
consistently. It is the bad actor, and not the good 
one, who on the stage betrays the characteristics of his 
every-day Hfe: and it is only fair to attribute to Helena 
a portion of that versatility in impersonation which 
some of us remember as a principal feature in Dickens' 
acting. If Dickens could play the part of an old 
woman, surely he might suppose a young woman to 
play the part of an elderly gentleman. But, Mr Lang 
may say, there are limits to the actor's capabilities, and 
a power of "chaffing" is beyond Helena's reach. I 
am not so sure of it. At pp. 253, 254 she indulges 
more than once in a quiet, kindly, mockery of Rosa 
which suggests possibilities in this direction. 

Again, it is objected that Datchery's meals are 
those of a man, and not of a woman. But, if a woman 
plays the part of a man, she must order what a man 
would order. If Datchery had not ordered a pint of 
sherry with his fried sole and veal cutlet, the waiter at 
the Crozier would have thought that there was some- 
thing wrong : if Datchery had scorned " the supper of 
bread-and-cheese and salad and ale" Mrs Tope might 
have thought him strangely fastidious. In excuse for 
Helena it may be suggested that possibly she did not 
consume all that the waiter and Mrs Tope set before 
her. Again, it is said, Datchery is at home with 
Durdles, Deputy, and the opium-woman : surely this is 
strange, if Datchery is Helena. For myself, I cannot 
conceive that Helena would find it difficult to draw 
these people out, and I think that she does it without 
loss of dignity. Again, if Datchery recognises that 

J- 4 



50 About Edwin Drood 

by "Jacks" Deputy means sailors, the recognition is 
expressed interrogatively and conjecturally, so that it 
hardly implies any special familiarity with the term. 
Again, when. Puzzle, p. 46, Mr Lang asks "How could 
Helena, fresh from Ceylon, know the old tavern way 
of keeping scores," may we not suppose that she had 
seen it in use in her country walks with Neville ? 

Then too it is represented that Helena, with her 
knowledge of Cloisterham, could not have gone 
"boggling about and about the Cathedral Tower," 
p. 214, when she was looking for Mrs Tope's. This 
objection seems to rest upon a misconception of 
Datchery's conversation with the waiter at the Crozier. 
When Datchery invites the waiter to recommend him 
"a fair lodging for a single buffer": "something old... 
something odd and out of the way ; something vener- 
able, architectural, and inconvenient " : and, finally, asks 
whether there is "anything Cathedrally," it is quite 
plain that Datchery — whoever he may be — knows, or 
knows of, Mrs Tope's lodgings, and is determined to 
make the waiter recommend them. The waiter's 
thoughts do not travel quickly : but the word " Cathe- 
drally " suggests to him that "Mr Tope would be the 
likeliest party to inform in that line," and his mention 
of Mr Tope reminds him that Mrs Tope used to 
advertise lodgings. In the same way, Datchery is quite 
familiar with the gatehouse, though he deliberately plays 
the part of a stranger, and " boggling about and about 
the Cathedral Tower," does not arrive at his destina- 
tion until he has made acquaintance with Deputy and 
obtained his assistance. In the same way, Datchery 



Datchery 51 

is careful not to know too much about the tragedy of 
the preceding Christmas and to listen respectfully to 
Mrs Tope's corrections of his ideas about it. Plainly 
Datchery has much more local knowledge than he 
admits himself to possess : so that there is nothing in 
all this which conflicts with Mr Walters' theory. 

Then too I am asked, If Datchery is Helena, and 
therefore already knows the gatehouse, why does she, 
p. 215, give it "a second look of some interest.-*" 
Surely it is because it now has for her a new im- 
portance. Hitherto it has been no more than the 
home of a man whom she dislikes and distrusts. It is 
now the object upon which her thoughts are concen- 
trated : to watch it is to be her business for weeks and 
perhaps for months. In the same way, at p. 283, we 
read — " John Jasper's lamp is kindled, and his light- 
house is shining when Mr Datchery returns alone 
towards it. As mariners on a dangerous voyage, ap- 
proaching an iron-bound coast, may look along the 
beams of the warning light to the haven lying beyond 
it that may never be reached, so Mr Datchery's wistful 
gaze is directed to this beacon, and beyond." In other 
words, Helena, whose interest in the case is not that of 
a professional detective, is profoundly conscious that 
the well-being of those who are dear to her depends 
upon her success in fathoming and counteracting the 
schemes of Jasper. In short, "the second look" and 
"the wistful glance" are not Datchery's: they are rare 
revelations of the true Helena. 

How much then has Helena achieved ? In the 
language of the cricketer, she has "played herself in." 

4—2 



52 About Edwin Drood 

That is to say, she has established herself in Mrs Tope's 
unoccupied rooms from which she can watch the goings 
in and goings out of Jasper and his visitors: she has 
become in the character of Datchery a familiar figure 
in the streets of Cloisterham : she is "the chartered 
bore of the city," p. 281: in particular, she has made 
acquaintance as Datchery with the waiter at the Crozier, 
Deputy, Mrs Tope, Jasper, the Mayor, Durdles, and 
doubtless others. This is much. At the end of her 
first day in Cloisterham she is already justified, p. 221, 
in congratulating herself upon "a rather busy after- 
noon." This however is as far as she has gone in 
ch. xviii. But in ch. xxiii she has two experiences 
which seem to her noteworthy. The first is a meeting 
with the opium-woman, who comes to Cloisterham in 
pursuit of Jasper, follows him to the gatehouse, and 
asks Datchery to tell her Jasper's name and calling. 
She may see and hear Mr John Jasper, says Datchery, 
if she goes to the Cathedral at seven o'clock in the 
morning. But all that concerns John Jasper concerns 
Dick Datchery. So Datchery walks with the old 
woman as far as the Monks' Vineyard, and hears from 
her how on the preceding Christmas Eve a young 
gentleman called Edwin, who had no sweetheart, had 
given her money with which to buy opium. At the 
mention of opium, "Mr Datchery, with a sudden change 
of countenance, gives her a sudden look" : and, on hear- 
ing Edwin's name, he " drops some money, stoops to 
pick it up, and reddens with the exertion." Plainly the 
stranger's reference to opium and her knowledge of 
Edwin's name surprise Datchery. So Datchery tells 



Datchery 53 

Deputy to find out where the old woman lives in 
London. But a moderate stroke is all that can be 
added to the score. The next morning" however, 
when the old woman grins and shakes her fist at the 
choirmaster, and presently afiirms that she knows him 
"better far than all the Reverend Parsons put together 
know him," Datchery "adds one thick line to the score, 
extending from the top of the cupboard door to the 
bottom." Why does Datchery thus distinguish } The 
reason is, I think, that, whereas the questions put by 
the old woman on the preceding evening might mean 
nothing more than idle curiosity, her gestures at the 
morning service show that she knows Jasper, and hates 
him with a hatred which is perhaps all the more note- 
worthy because it has nothing to do either with Jasper's 
persecution of Rosa or with the disappearance of Edwin 
Drood. What Datchery has learnt is then that there 
is a keenly interested watcher who is not commissioned 
by the Staple Inn alliance. It will be worth while, 
thinks Datchery, to get into touch with such an one ; 
or at any rate to discover the motive of her animosity. 
Of course we, who have been permitted to listen to the 
ramblings of Jasper, know that Datchery is not wrong 
in so thinking ; for the old woman has information 
which would be invaluable to the allies : but Datchery 
has no assurance that it is so, and, for the moment, 
the long, thick, line indicates nothing more than hopeful 
expectation. 

How then will Datchery go to work ? Conjecture 
will not carry us very far. But it is obvious to suppose 
that sooner or later Datchery will win the old woman's 



54 About Edwin Drood 

confidence, and will hear from her of her grievance, of 
the watch which she has kept upon Jasper in her den, 
and of the mutterings which have betrayed to her his 
recent misdeeds. We know further that Datchery 
intends to visit Durdles, and that Deputy is to be of 
the party, p. 221. Presumably, "the unaccountable 
journey " will be repeated ; and it is easy to guess that 
the two vagabonds will find a more sympathetic com- 
panion in Datchery than they had done in Jasper. 
Probably, they will both have something important to 
tell about the preceding Christmas Eve. Had Durdles 
perhaps already found in the quicklime of the crypt the 
ring which, according to Forster, was to identify the 
person murdered, the locality of the crime, and the 
man who committed it ? The expositors have seen 
that these results might be obtained if an advertisement 
were to be published, offering a reward for a betrothal 
ring known to have been in the possession of the late 
Edwin Drood at the time of his disappearance. The 
criminal would come to recover what in his ignorance 
he had not removed from the body, and might be 
apprehended, or at any rate identified, by watchers 
placed for the purpose where the ring had been found. 
So much seems highly probable. 



No. IV.] 



JULY, 1870. 



[Price One Shilling. 




LONDON: C HAPMAN & HALL, 193, P ICCADILLY. 

Advertlaements to be sent to the Publlshera, and ADAMS & FBANOIS, 69, Fleet Street, E.C. 

[TTte right of Tramlahon u reserved.] 



§ vi. The cover. 

It may be thought that any one who goes out of his 
way to write about The Mystery is bound to interpret 
the pictures which appear on the cover of the original 
issue, and therefore I proceed to say what I think 
about them. But I cannot feel as much confidence as 
Mr Lang and Mr Walters do in this evidence. It is 
to be remembered that, when the cover was designed, 
Dickens had not written even so much of the story as 
is extant, and did not himself know the details of 
the scenes selected for presentation. Hence, when 
Mr Lang argues that the lower of the two pictures on 
the left side does not represent Jasper's proposal to 
Rosa, because in the story "he stands apart, leaning 
on a sundial," Puzzle, p. 82, the discrepancy does not 
seem to me decisive. Nor have I complete confidence 
in Mr Collins' ability to distinguish adequately in these 
thumb-nail sketches the several personalities which 
Dickens had more or less accurately described to him. 
Finally, it must not be forgotten that we are prejudiced 
and hampered by our familiarity with Sir L. Fildes' 
effective designs drawn, as it would seem, with a 
complete knowledge of the corresponding text 



^6 About Edwin Drood 

There are however some certainties and some 
probabilities. We may fairly presume that the figures 
in the four corners represent comedy, tragedy, the 
opium-woman, and the Chinaman. In the nave of 
the Cathedral, Edwin and Rosa pair off against 
Jasper and Crisparkle. Despite the discrepancy which 
Mr Lang points out, I think that the lower of the two 
pictures on our left shows Jasper and Rosa in the 
garden of the Nuns' House. In the upper side-piece, 
the girl is, I am sure, Rosa flying from Jasper's pur- 
suit, in full view of a placard announcing Edwin's 
disappearance. It is true that the hatless girl with 
her hair streaming down her back does not answer 
very well to Dickens' description of Rosa, and has no 
resemblance to Sir L. Fildes' pictures of her : but if 
Dickens, when he had not yet thought out his concep- 
tion of her personality, told Collins to draw a frightened 
girl of seventeen running away from school, no more 
than this could be expected. For the scheme of the 
sketch, compare the picture in BleakHotise, which shows 
Lady Dedlock, as she mounts the staircase, turning 
to look at a bill announcing a reward for the discovery 
of the murderer of Tulkinghorn. That placards and 
advertisements, imploring Edwin to communicate with 
his uncle, had been widely circulated, we have been 
told at p. 182. On the right, the two men in the 
lower picture are, I suppose, Jasper and Durdles 
ascending the tower on the night of "the unaccount- 
able expedition"; while the man above is Jasper on 
Christmas Eve looking down at ''that,'' p. 276: "Look 
down, look down ! You see what lies at the bottom 



The cover 57 

there ?" p. 274. I demur to Mr Lang's statements 
that the young man whom I venture to identify with 
Jasper is represented as " whiskerless," and that the 
figure which I take to be Durdles is well-dressed. 

And now I come to the important vignette at the 
bottom of the page. According to Mr Proctor, Jasper, 
opening the Sapsea tomb to search for the ring, finds 
Edwin Drood awaiting him. "And what sees he?" 
asks Mr Proctor : " is it the spirit of his victim, that 
stands there, 'in his habit as he lived,' his hand clasped 
on his breast, where the ring had been^ when he was 
murdered ? What else can Jasper deem it ? There, 
clearly visible in the gloom at the back of the tomb, 
stands Edwin Drood, with stern look fixed on him — 
pale, silent, relentless!" Watched by the Dead, p. 136. 
Mr Lang's comment, Puzzle, p. 87, is to the same 
effect as Mr Proctor's : " There are only two possible 
choices; either Collins, under Dickens's oral instruc- 
tions, depicted Jasper finding Drood alive in the vault, 
an incident which was to occur in the story ; or Dickens 
bade Collins do this for the purpose of misleading" his 
readers in an illegitimate manner ; while the young 
man in the vault was really to be some person ' made 
up ' to look like Drood, and so to frighten Jasper with 

^ This picturesque detail rests upon an oversight. In the picture, 
the left hand is in the right-hand breast pocket : but we know from 
two passages in ch. xiii that Edwin used the right hand in seeking 
the ring, and therefore that he carried it in his left-hand breast 
pocket. As I have said, I attach no importance to such discre- 
pancies : but, if Mr Proctor tries to make capital out of a supposed 
agreement, I may be permitted to point out that the supposed agree- 
ment is imaginary. 



58 About Edwin Drood 

a pseudo-ghost of that hero. The latter device, the 
misleading picture, would be childish, and the pseudo- 
ghost, exactly like Drood, could not be acted by the 
gypsy-like, fierce Helena, or by any other person in 
the romance." According to Mr Walters, Jasper finds 
Datchery awaiting him. 

For my own part, I suspect that the upright figure 
represents Drood, but that the Drood which it repre- 
sents is a phantom of Jasper's imagination. Let us 
suppose that an advertisement for a ring known to 
have been in the possession of the late Edwin Drood 
appears in the local newspaper, and that Jasper, now 
for the first time aware of the ring's existence, goes to 
the crypt to look for it. Dickens might well suppose 
him at such a moment to see a vision of the murdered 
man, and might instruct Collins to represent what 
Jasper imagined himself to see. Indeed I fancy that 
I recognise an intentional contrast between the two 
figures : the one, in the foreground, full of movement, 
solidly drawn ; the other, in the background, statuesque, 
and a little shadowy. Doubtless Dickens was anxious 
that the reader should not know too much ; and if he 
made Collins give visible form to a hallucination of 
Jasper's brain, I for one do not think the procedure 
illegitimate. It is sad that Dickens did not live to 
explain the innocent deception which, as I imagine, 
he meant for a few months to practise upon his 
readers. 



§ vii. The opium-woman. 

It is quite plain that, though within the Hmits of 
the extant fragment Dickens keeps back the story of 
the opium-woman, he means her to play an important 
part in the unmasking of Jasper. So it will be worth 
while to collect such notices as he has vouchsafed to 
us about her and her doings. We know that during 
nine months she has been endeavouring, not without 
success, to make Jasper talk when under the influence 
of opium, p. 276, quoted above p. 1 7 : that she has 
noted his threats against one Ned, called by his sweet- 
heart Eddy, but has no personal knowledge of Drood, 
p. 171: that on Christmas Eve she pursues Jasper to 
Cloisterham, but loses him, pp. 170, 280: that she 
claims to " know him better far than all the Reverend 
Parsons put together," and hates him mortally, p. 287 : 
that on Christmas Eve, when she saw Cloisterham for 
the first time, p. 282, she "wasn't so much as certain 
that he even went right on to the place," p. 280: and 
that six months later she has to ask his name and 
his calling, p. 280. Plainly she knows nothing of 
Drood or of Cloisterham : but she has a grievance 
of her own against Jasper, and she seeks to revenge 
herself upon him by discovering the crime which his 
mutterings under the influence of opium have partially 
betrayed to her. What can her grievance be ^ 



6o About PZdwin Drood 

Mr Cuming Walters offers alternative conjectures : 
either {a) the opium-woman has been deserted by- 
Jasper's father, Jasper is her son, and "she will make the 
child suffer for the sins of the father, who had destroyed 
her happiness," Clues, p. 92 ; or {b) Jasper has "wronged 
a child of the woman's," Chies, p. 93. The former of 
these hypotheses is, I think, open to fatal objections : 
first, it is fantastic to suppose that the opium-woman 
seeks to revenge herself upon her dead seducer by 
destroying their son ; secondly, the hypothesis presumes 
that she knows who Jasper is, whereas seemingly she 
knows neither his name nor where he lives. There is 
more to be said for the alternative hypothesis : but it 
seems to me unnecessary to suppose that the girl whom 
Jasper wronged was the child of the opium-woman. 
My own conjecture is that the old woman had been 
kindly entreated by some young girl, superior in 
station to herself, but inferior to Jasper : that Jasper 
seduced her : that his infatuation for Rosa led him to 
neglect his victim : that she made away with herself: 
and that the old woman, moved by her grateful affec- 
tion for the girl, devoted herself to the pursuit of the 
betrayer. 

And I would suggest further that the girl made 
away with herself on the Christmas Eve preceding that 
on which Edwin Drood disappeared. In the course of 
"the unaccountable expedition," Durdles tells Jasper 
that "this time last year, only a few days later," he 
entered the Cathedral and fell asleep. "'And what 
woke me ? The ghost of a cry. The ghost of one 
terrific shriek, which shriek was followed by the ghost 



The opmm-woniati 6i 

of the howl of a dog : a long dismal woeful howl, such 
as a dog gives when a person's dead. That was my 
last Christmas Eve.' 'What do you mean?' is the 
very abrupt, and one might say, fierce retort. ' I mean 
that I made inquiries everywhere about, and that no 
living ears but mine heard either that cry or that howl. 
So I say they was both ghosts ; though why they came 
to me, I've never made out,'" p. 144. Now there is 
nothing surprising in Durdles' illusions or dreams : for, 
that the cry and the howl were illusions or dreams^ 
Durdles plainly acknowledges in the last sentence of 
my extract. What is noteworthy is the effect produced 
upon Jasper by the words with which Durdles con- 
cludes his reminiscence — "That was 7;/^ last Christmas 
Eve." These words, with their emphasis on the posses- 
sive pronoun, seem to challenge Jasper to say what his 
last Christmas Eve had been : and I suspect that such 
conscience as he possesses is pricked by the recollection 
of something which happened on that night. And I 
can further conceive that the story of Jasper's previous 
misconduct is the "anecdote in point," which "it would be 
premature to relate," referred to by Grewgious at p. 245. 
If Grewgious in collecting the rents of "the miserable 
court " in which the old woman lived had heard the 
pitiful story, and had connected it with Jasper, this 
might account for the complete change in his attitude 
towards the plausible precentor. 

^ Compare Bleak House, ch. xxxii, p. 419, "ghosts of sounds — 
strange cracks and tickings, the rustling of garments that have no 
substance in them, and the tread of dreadful feet, that would leave 
no mark on the sea-sand or the winter snow." 



§ viii. Did Drood escape ? 

Thus far I have tried to collect the facts of the 
extant chapters; and if now and then I have wandered 
into the region of speculation, I have been careful to 
mark the tentative character of these excursions, and 
to limit their scope. But the time has come when I 
must needs say something about a speculative question 
which has fascinated the critics and engaged much of 
their attention : " Did Jasper succeed, or did he fail, 
in his attempt upon the life of his nephew ? " 

We know {a) that on Christmas Eve Jasper made 
a premeditated attempt upon Drood's life, (J?) that 
from that time Drood has not again appeared upon the 
scene, and (c) on the authority of Sir L. Fildes, that 
Jasper was later to be the occupant of a condemned 
cell : whence it is obvious to conjecture that Jasper 
killed Drood. But we are nowhere told so : it is 
possible to account otherwise for Jasper's occupation of 
the condemned cell : and surprise is one of the devices 
of the story-teller. Are we then to conclude, that, if 
Dickens has gone so near to saying that Jasper killed 
Drood without actually saying it, Drood has escaped ? 
No : the two contentions exactly balance one another. 



Did Drood escape ? 63 

Moreover, we know that Dickens is studiously keeping 
the issue in suspense ; for one of his experimental 
titles for the story was — " Dead ? or Alive ? " Never- 
theless it will be worth while to state and to consider 
such arguments as have been, or may be, urged in 
favour of either hypothesis. 

That Drood escaped, is confidently maintained by 
Mr Proctor and Mr Lang ; and I therefore rely upon 
them for the presentation of this theory. Their argu- 
ments are, I think, two. 

First, according to Mr Proctor, "The idea which 
more than any other had a fascination for Dickens, and 
was apparently regarded by him as likely to be most 
potent in its influence on others, was that of a wrong- 
doer watched at every turn by one of whom he has no 
suspicion, for whom he even entertains a feeling of 
contempt," Watched by the Dead, pp. 5, 6 : and " every 
conceivable form of his favourite theme had now been 
tried, save that which Dickens had himself indicated^ 
as the most effective of all — that the dead should rise 
from the grave to confront his murderer. This idea 
was at length to be used, difficult though it seemed to 
work it out successfully," p. 22. Now, Mr Proctor has, 
I think, conclusively shown that "the idea of patient, 
unsuspected watching to bring an evil-doer to justice " 
was "strong in Dickens's mind," p. 1 1, and I recognise 
that Edwin Drood is a case in point ; for both Datchery 

^ Apparently Mr Proctor rests this assertion upon a sentence 
from Martin Chuzzlewit which he has quoted at p. lo : "The 
dead man might have come out of his grave, and not confounded 
and appalled him so." 



64 About Edwin Drood 

and the opium- woman are just such watchers. But I 
demur altogether to the corollary that, every conceivable 
form of this favourite theme with one exception having 
now been tried, this one exception was to be made use 
of in Edwin Drood, and that therefore in Edwin Drood 
the supposed victim was to be the watcher. I am by 
no means satisfied that this was the only possible varia- 
tion upon the familiar theme : for, may we not think 
that pursuit by two independent watchers was enough 
of a novelty } 

Secondly, according to Mr Proctor, Watched by the 
Dead, p. 71, "all the characters who die in Dickens's 
stories are marked for death from the beginning," and 
"there is not one note of death in aught that he" 
[Drood] "does and says": and, p. 150, "there are touches 
in the chapters of Edivin Drood preceding Edwin's 
disappearance, which show any one who understands 
Dickens's manner, and has an ear for the music of 
his words, that Edwin Drood is not actually to be 
killed, and that the Drood who is reallv to be seen no 
more is the light-hearted whimsicaP boy of the earlier 
pages. But that evidence was not for all readers." 
Mr Lang, Puzzle, p. 69, endorses Mr Proctor's argu- 
ment : " Mr Proctor truly adds that Edwin has none 
of the signs of Dickens's doomed men, his Sidney 
Cartons, and the rest. You can tell, as it were by the 
sound of the voice of Dickens, says Mr Proctor, that 
Edwin is to live. The impression is merely subjective, 

1 Why "whimsical"? This is one of the last epithets which I 
should apply to Edwin. When Dickens calls Rosa "whimsical," I 
understand perfectly. 



Did Drood escape ? 65 

but I feel the impression." " As the time approaches 
for Jasper's attack on him," says Mr Proctor, p. 72, 
** there is much in the music of the story to suggest 
that trouble is approaching ; but he is not to die, albeit 
the reader is to think him dead." 

I must not transcribe the whole story of Edwin's 
solitary and sorrowful Christmas Eve : but I may be 
permitted to extract two or three paragraphs, pp. 169, 
171. " He strolls about and about, to pass the time 
until the dinner-hour. It somehow happens that 
Cloisterham seems reproachful to him to-day ; has 
fault to find with him, as if he had not used it well ; 
but is far more pensive with him than angry. His 
wonted carelessness is replaced by a wistful looking at, 
and dwelling upon, all the old landmarks. He will soon 
be far away, and may never see them again, he thinks. 
Poor youth ! poor youth!"... "This is not an inspiriting 
close to a dull day. Alone, in a sequestered place, 
surrounded by vestiges of old time and decay, it rather 
has a tendency to call a shudder into being. He makes 
for the better-lighted streets, and resolves as he walks 
on to say nothing of this to-night, but to mention it to 
Jack (who alone calls him Ned), as an odd coincidence, 
to-morrow ; of course only as a coincidence, and not 
as anything better worth remembering. 

" Still, it holds to him, as many things much better 
worth remembering never did. He has another mile or 
so, to linger out before the dinner-hour ; and, when he 
walks over the bridge and by the river, the woman's 
words are in the rising wind, in the angry sky, in the 
troubled water, in the flickering lights. There is some 

J- 5 



66 About Edwin Drood 

solemn echo of them even in the Cathedral chime, 
which strikes a sudden surprise to his heart as he turns 
in under the archway of the gatehouse. 
** And so he goes up the postern stair." 
In these and other such paragraphs, according to 
Mr Proctor and Mr Lang, Dickens tries to make us 
think that Edwin is dead : but " any one who under- 
stands Dickens's manner" sees through his artifice, 
and recognises that Edwin, not merely is not marked 
for death, but is positively designated for life. So far 
Mr Proctor and Mr Lang appear to be in agreement : 
but I gather that Mr Proctor justifies his incredulity 
about Edwin's death principally on the ground that 
"all the characters who die in Dickens's stories are 
marked for death from the beginning," and "there is 
not one note of death in aught that Drood does or 
says," and only secondarily, by an appeal to the culti- 
vated tact of the expert Dickensian ; while Mr Lang, 
although in passing he endorses Mr Proctor's argument 
that Dickens' notes or marks of death are conspicuously 
absent in Drood, relies chiefly upon a general impres- 
sion which he admits to be " merely subjective." This 
being so, it will be convenient to separate the two 
proofs, and to hold Mr Proctor responsible for the 
one, Mr Lang for the other. Now the fact is that 
Mr Proctor's argument is ineffective, because he does 
not tell us what the notes are which from the beginning 
mark for death the characters who die in Dickens' 
stories, and in consequence we are not in a position 
either to consider the validity of the tests or to apply 
them : and that Mr Lang's argument hardly claims to 



Did Drood escape ? (rj 

be a proof. Thus neither appeals to any one who is 
not already convinced. At the same time I value ex- 
ceedingly Mr Lang's "subjective impression." He is 
far more familiar with Dickens' methods, mannerisms, 
and " tones " than I am : and when he writes — " you can 
tell, as it were by the sound of the voice of Dickens, 
that Edwin is to live," I hesitate to set up my own 
"subjective impression" against his. Nevertheless, 
if I am asked what subjective impression the paragraphs 
quoted above and other such produce upon me, I am 
bound to say that in my judgment they are ominous 
and tragical, and have the ring of truth. Indeed the 
impression is so strong with me that, if I were after- 
wards to find Edwin reappearing alive and well, I 
should have a resentful feeling that my pity for Drood 
and my admiration of Dickens had been won by false 
pretences. But, as I have said, I must not set my 
subjective impression against the subjective impressions 
of experts. 

There are however other tests to which the theory 
of Mr Proctor and Mr Lang should be submitted : 
(i) is the theory that Edwin escaped and reappeared 
as Datchery plausible in itself .-^ (2) does it harmonise 
with what we know and conjecture about the tenour 
of the story ? 

(i) Mr Proctor and Mr Lang have discussed at 
length the manner of Edwin's escape. They suppose 
that "Jasper bungled the murder: made an incomplete 
job of it," Puzzle, p. 57: either " D rood's face was 
fortunately protected by the strong silk shawl with 
which Jasper had intended to throttle him." Watched 



68 About Edwin Drood 

by the Dead, p, 74, and Durdles by his "gift" happened 
to discover him in Mrs Sapsea's tomb ; or Jasper, after 
his night in the opium-den, has one of his weird seizures 
and " not only fails to strangle Drood, but fails to lock 
the door of the vault, and Drood walks out after 
Jasper has gone," Puzzle, p. 58. Having thus escaped, 
Drood enters into communication with Grewgious and 
restores the betrothal ring. Watched by the Dead, p. 133, 
and Grewgious, Watched by the Dead, p. 83, tells 
Rosa that Edwin is alive. He was however, thinks 
Mr Proctor, who is sometimes very bold, " for months 
prostrated by illness following Jasper's desperate 
attack," Watched by the Dead, p. 95, and, apparently, 
when he recovered, he was a changed man, capable of 
sustaining the arduous part of Datchery. 

Now it is, I suppose, conceivable that Jasper, 
having studiously planned and rehearsed the murder, 
nevertheless failed in the execution : but, though this is 
conceivable, I cannot think it probable that what was 
so carefully planned and rehearsed, would fail so pitiably. 
By admission, Jasper proposed to strangle Edwin and to 
bury him in a heap of quicklime. It is suggested that, 
in fact, Jasper half strangled him, and buried him in 
quicklime so imperfectly that a rescue or escape was 
possible. This does not seem to me sufficiently 
plausible. Mr Lang himself thinks Mr Proctor's 
theory "thin, very thin," and pronounces his detailed 
conjectures "crude to the last degree," Puzzle, pp. 55, 
56. So far I agree with Mr Lang: but I do not think 
that Mr Lang's supplementary conjecture — " that 
Jasper had one of his 'filmy' seizures, was 'in a 



Did Drood escape ? 69 

frightful sort of dream,' and bungled the murder," 
p. 57 — does much to mend matters. If Jasper, in 
spite of his seizure, was still able to half strangle Drood, 
ransack his pockets, and half bury him in quicklime, it 
is difficult to understand how Drood escaped so easily. 
If Drood was able with or without help to make his 
escape, it is difficult to understand how Jasper suc- 
ceeded so far as to half strangle him, ransack his 
pockets, and half bury him in quicklime. 

(2) But in spite of these difficulties let us suppose 
that Drood escaped. Our second question remains : 
is the theory of Mr Proctor and Mr Lang consistent 
with the recorded facts of the rest of the extant frag- 
ment } Mr Proctor and Mr Lang assume that 
Grewgious, as soon as he arrived at Cloisterham, 
became aware of Drood's escape, told Rosa of it, and 
received from Drood the betrothal ring. Is this con- 
sistent with what we know ? If Grewgious is aware 
that Drood in the company of Jasper has narrowly 
escaped assassination, why does Grewgious allow 
Landless to remain under suspicion, and why is 
Grewgious' attitude six months later defensive and 
not offensive ? If the ring has been restored to him, 
why does he not make trial of its " invincible force 
to hold and drag".'* If Rosa knew what Grewgious 
is supposed to have known and to have told to her, 
Puzzle, p. 62, namely, that Edwin is still alive, would 
not this knowledge have coloured her thoughts about 
Edwin's disappearance and about the scene in the 
garden ? and, if it had coloured her thoughts, would 
Dickens, who gives us in the third and fourth para- 



70 About Edwin Drood 

graphs of ch. xx a careful account of Rosa's speculations 
and questionings during the last six months and after 
the garden scene, have thought himself justified in 
suppressing this principal factor ? Again, when Rosa 
says, p. 236, "I had no time, I took a sudden resolution. 
Poor, poor Eddy ! " and Grewgious replies, " Ah, poor 
fellow, poor fellow ! " they seem to me to recognise 
Drood's death^: compare Bleak House, ch. xlv, p. 574. 
I am aware that Mr Proctor, Watched by the Dead, 
p. 104, interprets otherwise: "'Poor, poor Eddy!' from 
her meant that her sudden resolution had no relation 
to Edwin's love ; and ' Ah, poor fellow, poor fellow ! ' 
from Mr Grewgious was the natural answer to what 
her sorrowful words implied " : but I confess that this 
interpretation seems to me far-fetched. 

But besides these particular reasons for believing 
that Edwin Drood did not escape, I have further a 
general conviction that the story is a better one if it 
has for its central incident the extinction of a bright 
but careless youth at the moment when he seems to 
be awakening to a more purposeful existence, than if 
the villain bungles the crime, and is condemned to 
death for a consequential homicide. In my judgment, 
if Drood is done to death by his uncle on the fateful 
Christmas Eve, we have a real tragedy, and there is 
enough for Dickens to do in tracing the steps by which 
Grewgious, Datchery, and the opium-woman — not 
without help from Durdles and Deputy — brought home 

^ Of course at p. 248 the words '* Poor, poor Eddy ! " thought, 
but not spoken, by Rosa, have an entirely different meaning : at 
p. 236 she has not yet made acquaintance with Tartar. 



Did Drood escape ? 71 

to Jasper his criminality. On the other hand, if Drood 
has escaped, I think him a common-place and lucky 
young man, and Jasper a common-place and clumsy 
scoundrel, and I lose my interest in both. In a word, 
I am bold enough to fancy that the drama which, 
according to Mr Proctor, Dickens suggested to his 
less instructed readers, would have produced a more 
effective d^noument than the surprise which, according 
to the experts, he was preparing for us. But I frankly 
admit that this is equivalent to saying that I am one 
of those whom Mr Proctor, Watched by the Dead, 
p. 145, describes as "the duller readers." 

In conclusion, something must be said about an 
objection which at this point may very fairly be raised 
against me. Throughout this section I have assumed 
that the "mystery" was a real mystery; that Jasper 
was a veritable criminal who knew what he wanted and 
did his best to bring it about ; and, in a word, that the 
actions both of Jasper and of the rest were dictated by 
common sense. But are these assumptions justifiable ? 
In Bleak House, it may be said, where also there is a 
mystery, the conduct of the persons concerned is wholly 
irrational. Tulkinghorn is a machiavellian intriguer, 
but his aims are wholly unintelligible. Lady Dedlock 
is a bundle of inconsistencies. Hortense's appearance 
at Tulkinghorn's chambers is futile. Bucket's expe- 
dition to St Albans to make Jo " move on " is silly. 
Hortense's murder of Tulkinghorn is as absurd as her 
conduct before and afterwards. Bucket's journey with 
Esther Summerson is fantastic. If in Bleak House 
Dickens was content to propound a mystery which no 



72 About Edwin Drood 

more hangs together than a nightmare, it may fairly 
be asked by what right I look for consistency in The 
Mystery of Edwin Drood. I look for it, because a 
careful examination of the extant chapters satisfies me 
that, here at any rate, Dickens had taken pains in 
constructing his story. If, as I think, the chronology 
of the extant chapters is impeccable, I need not expect 
in the sequel the inconsistencies and the absurdities of 
Bleak House. In the interval Dickens had learnt that 
a story ought to be plausible and consistent, and I 
assume that Edivin Drood was more or less so. 



§ ix. The manuscript. 

The preceding pages had been written and again 
and again revised, when I learnt from Dr M. R. James, 
on the authority of Mr Anstey Guthrie, that the manu- 
script of the extant chapters of Edivin Drood still 
exists and is preserved at the Victoria and Albert 
Museum. I have now examined it, and it seems to 
me worth while to give some account of it, and to 
consider what light, if any, it throws upon my inquiry. 

The volume (Forster Collection No. 167) begins 
with a page of tentative suggestions for the title of the 
book and for the names of its personages. Next comes 
a table of contents for No. VI. The rejected chapter, 
which Forster prints in the Life, follows. Then, 
headed " Plans," there is a scheme of chapters num- 
bered from I to XX, XX being the end of Number V. 
Pages are left blank for each of the remaining Numbers. 
Next we have " Mystery of Edwin Drood. Chapter 
Headings." The "Chapter Headings" of Parts I to 
V are numbered from Chapter I (here called "The 
Dawn") to Chapter XX (here called "Divers Flights"): 
but these " Headings" were not, I think, filled in here 
till the chapters had been actually written, and, as I 



74 About Edwin Drood 

shall presently show, certain of the chapters were 
subsequently transposed. Then comes the text of 
the extant chapters, the beginning of each " Number" 
being indicated, and, in all instances but one, the pages 
of each Number being numbered consecutively by 
Dickens himself 

The first section of the manuscript text includes 
" No, I. Chapter I, The Prologue," pp. (i) and 2. 

"Chapter II, A Dean and a Chapter also," 

pp. 3—10. 
" Chapter III, The Nuns' House," pp. 11 — 17. 
"Chapter IV, Mr Sapsea," pp. 18—23. 
And here I may note that at the end of Chapter IV 
the manuscript has a last rejoinder from Durdles to 
Jasper which does not appear in the printed text, and 
that the printed text adds a final paragraph about 
Jasper and Sapsea which does not appear in the manu- 
script. I suspect that these changes were made in the 
proof, and that Dickens sacrificed Durdles' "sulky 
retort^" in order to make room within the limits of the 
page for the addition of the concluding paragraph. 

But, besides these four chapters contained in the 
first section or " Number " of the manuscript, the 
printed Part I includes also "chapter v, Mr Durdles 
and Friend," which in the manuscript appears as 

^ Printed text : " and he gets out of the room, deigning no word 
of answer." Manuscript : " and finally he gets out of the room with 
the sulky retort : ' How does the fact stand, Mr Jasper ? The fact 
stands six on one side to half a dozen on t'other. So far as Durdles 
sees the fact with his eyes, it has took up about that position as near 
as may be.' " 



The mamiscript 75 

"Chapter VIII," pp. 19 — 23, at the end of the second 
section. Thils, whereas in the printed book Jasper 
makes acquaintance with Deputy on the night of the 
visit to Sapsea, in the manuscript they encounter one 
another for the first time on the night of Mrs Crisparkle's 
dinner party, when Jasper returns to the gatehouse 
after the conversation with Crisparkle recorded at the 
end of the chapter entitled " Daggers Drawn." Now 
there can be no doubt that for the general purposes of 
the story "Mr Durdles and Friend " is better placed 
after " Mr Sapsea." But transposition, however ex- 
cellent the motive, has its risks: and the opening words 
and the closing sentences of "Mr Durdles and Friend," 
while they are quite appropriate in their original posi- 
tion, are not altogether in keeping where they now 
stand. For, first, whilst Jasper when he returned to 
the gatehouse from Crisparkle's house in Minor Canon 
Corner would necessarily make "his way home through 
the Close," p. 52, when he returned from Sapsea's he 
would naturally follow High Street: and, secondly, the 
careful description of Jasper "looking down upon his 
nephew with a fixed and deep attention" as he "lies 
asleep, calm and untroubled," and then "lighting his 
pipe, and delivering himself to the Spectres it invokes 
at midnight," whilst it was full of meaning after the 
scene in "Daggers Drawn," has no special significance 
as it now stands, and indeed, inasmuch as not one 
word has been said about Edwin Drood's presence at 
Cloisterham, is almost, though not quite, an in- 
consistency. 



76 About Edwin Drood 

The second section of the manuscript includes four 
chapters : 

"No, II. Chapter V, Philanthropy in Minor Canon 
Corner," pp. i — 7, our ch. vi. 
"Chapter VI, More Confidences than One," 

pp. 7 — 12, our ch. vii. 
"Chapter VI I, Daggers Drawn," pp. 13 — 18, 

our ch. viii. 
"Chapter VIII, Mr Durdles and Friend," 
pp. 19 — 23, our ch. V. 
Of these. Chapter VIII has been already appended 
as chapter v to Part I of the printed book : and, to 
fill the gap thus made in the second Part, Chapter IX 
is introduced here from the third section of the 
manuscript. 

The next instalment of the manuscript includes 
four chapters, namely, 

" No. III. Chapter IX, Birds in the Bush," ten pages, 
not numbered by Dickens. As we have 
seen, this chapter was printed in Part II. 
" No. III. Chapter X," but originally " Chapter IX," 
" Smoothing the Way," pp. (i) — 9. 
"Chapter XI, A Picture and a Ring," pp. 
II — 18. Page 10, including the first five 
paragraphs of the chapter, is missing: 
but the title is certified by the list of 
" Chapter Headings." 
"Chapter XII, A Night with Durdles," pp. 
19—27. 
Now Dickens' procedure is strictly methodical : he 



The iiiamiscript 77 

writes at the beginning of the first chapter of the first 
Number, No. I, and he numbers the pages of the 
Number consecutively, (i) — 23 : and so elsewhere. 
Here, our "chapter x, Smoothing the Way," was 
originally "Chapter IX," and the pages of this chapter 
and the two chapters which followed it are numbered 
(i) — 27. But, as I have said, Dickens has not num- 
bered the pages of "Chapter IX, Birds in the Bush." 
Whence it appears that when he went to work 
upon Part III, he began by writing what we know 
as chapter x, and that he probably wrote Chapter XI 
and Chapter XII before he wrote Chapter IX. Thus 
once more Dickens in the printed book departs from 
what I may call "the order of composition." 

So far we are able to compare the manuscript 
with Parts which Dickens himself prepared for publi- 
cation and saw published. The three remaining parts 
appeared after his death. 

The fourth section of the manuscript is Part IV of 
the printed story. It contains 
"No. IV. Chapter XIII, Both at their Best," pp. 

(i)-7. 
" Chapter XIV, When shall these three meet 

again ?" pp. (8) — 16. 
"Chapter XV, Impeached," pp. (17) — 22. 
"Chapter XVI, Devoted," pp. (22)— 27. 
The next section of the manuscript, the fifth, 
consists of four chapters, entitled respectively 

" No. V. Chapter XVII, Philanthropy, Professional 
and Unprofessional," pp. i — 9. 



j8 Abottt Edwin Drood 

" Chapter XVIII, A settler in Cloisterham," 
pp. lo — 14. 

"Chapter XIX, Shadow on the Sundial," 
pp. 15—18. 

"Chapter XX, Divers Flights," pp. 19 — 27. 
But (i) what is here described as "Chapter XVIII " 
was originally "Chapter XIX," and the pages 10, 11, 
with which it opens, were originally pages 14, 15 : and 
what is here described as " Chapter XIX " was origin- 
ally "Chapter XVIII," and its pages 15, 16, 17, 18, 
were originally pages 10, 11, 12, 13. That is to say, 
Dickens wrote the whole of "Chapter XIX, Shadow 
on the Sundial," before he wrote the earlier half of 
"Chapter XVIII, A Settler in Cloisterham," and 
presumably decided to transpose the two chapters 
before he Wrote the latter half of Chapter XVIII. 
Furthermore, (2) " Chapter XX, Divers Flights," 
includes the two chapters called in the printed 
book " chapter xx, A Flight," and " chapter xxi, A 
Recognition." Obviously, when the manuscript was 
set up by the printers, Forster found that there was 
more matter than was wanted to fill the customary 
thirty-two pages. So he divided the chapter called 
"Divers Flights" into two chapters, and reserved the 
second, "A Recognition," for the sixth Part. He 
would be well pleased to do this, because in this way 
he would bring the sixth and last Part to very nearly 
the customary tale of pages. Moreover, he may have 
felt as I do, some doubt about Dickens' meaning in 
describing Chapter XX by the title "Divers Flights": 
for it is not clear what " Flight " other than Rosa's is 



The manuscript 79 

here referred to. A note in " Plans," — " Edwin dis- 
appears : done already " — suggests that Dickens was 
thinking of Edwin's disappearance six months before, 
and that he should have written "Another Flight." 

However this may be, the sixth section of the 
manuscript consists of "No. VI, Chapter XXI, A 
Gritty State of Things comes on," pp. (i) — to, 
that is to say, our chapter xxii, and "Chapter XXII, 
The Dawn Again," pp. 11 — 20, that is to say, our 
chapter xxiii. Dickens had intended to add to the 
Number a " Chapter XXIII ": but there is nothing to 
show what was to be included in it. Thus in the 
printed text, the sixth Part contains "chapter xxi, 
A Recognition," " chapter xxii, A Gritty State of 
Things comes on," " chapter xxiii. The Dawn again." 

Such are the facts about the manuscript. It may 
be worth while to recapitulate them in a tabular form. 



8o 



About Edwin Drood 



No. 
I. 


Chap. 
I. 




II. 




III. 




IV. 


II. 


V. 




VI. 




VII. 




VIII. 


III. 


IX. 


III. 


X. 




[XI. 
XII. 


IV. 


XIII. 




XIV. 




XV. 




XVI. 


V. 


XVII 



XVIII. 



XIX. 



XX. 



Numbers and Chapters of the Manuscript. 

The Prologue : later, The Dawn, pp. 1,2. 

A Dean and a Chapter also, pp. 3 — 10. 

The Nuns' House, pp. 11 — 17. 

Mr Sapsea, pp. 18 — 23. 

Philanthropy in Minor Canon Corner, pp. i — 7. 

More Confidences than One, pp. 7 — 12. 

Daggers Drawn, pp. 13 — 18. 

Mr Durdles and Friend, pp. 19 — 23. 

Birds in the Bush, pages not numbered by C D. 

[Originally "IX."] Smoothing the Way, pp. i — 9. 

A Picture and a Ring], p. 10 missing, pp. 11 — 18. 

A Night with Durdles, pp. 19 — 27. 

Both at their Best, pp. i — 7. 

When shall these Three meet again, pp. 8 — 16. 

Impeached, pp. 17 — 22. 

Devoted, pp. 22 — 27. 

Philanthropy, professional and unprofessional, pp. 

1—9. 
[Originally XIX.] A Settler in Cloisterham : first page, 

10 [originally 14]; second page, 11 [originally 15]; 

then, pages 12, 13, 14. 
[Originally XVIII.] Shadow on the Sundial : first 

page, 15 [originally 10]; second page, 16 [originally 

11]; third page, 17 [originally 12]; fourth page, 18 

[originally 13]. 
Divers Flights, pp. 19 — 27. 



VI. XXI. A Gritty State of Things comes on, pp. I — 10. 
XXII. The Dawn again, pp. 11 — 20. 



The mamiscript 



8i 



Farts and chapters of the Original Edition. 



Part Chap. 




I. i. 


The Dawn. 


ii. 


A Dean, and a Chapter also. 


iii. 


The Nuns' House. 


iv. 


Mr Sapsea. 


V. 


Mr Durdles and Friend. 


II. vi. 


Philanthropy in Minor Canon Corner. 


vii. 


More Confidences than One. 


viii. 


Daggers Drawn. 


ix. 


Birds in the Bush. 


III. X. 


Smoothing the Way. 


xi. 


A Picture and a Ring. 


xii. 


A Night with Durdles. 


[V. xiii. 


Both at their Best. 


xiv. 


When shall these Three meet again ? 


XV. 


Impeached. 


xvi. 


Devoted. 


V. xvii. 


Philanthropy, professional and unprofessional, 


xviii. 


A Settler in Cloisterham. 


xix. 


Shadow on the Sundial. 


XX. 


A Flight. 


"Jl. xxi. 


A Recognition. 


xxii. 


A Gritty State of Things comes on. 


xxiii. 


The Dawn again. 



N.B. (i) ch. V of the book was written after chapters vi, vii, viii: (2) ch. ix 
was written after ch. x was begun: (3) ch. xix was written before ch. xviii; 
but before C. D. had completed ch. xviii, he resolved to transpose the two 
chapters: (4) Ch. XX of the MS was divided, presumably by Forster, into 
ch. XX and ch. xxi of the book, because C. D. had left too much "copy' 
for Part v, and too little for Part vi. 



82 About Edwin Drood 

It remains for me to consider whether the evidence 
of the manuscript adds to, or detracts from, such 
results as I had previously obtained : and, in particular, 
whether it encourages or discourages my theory that 
"xviii, A Settler in Cloisterham " appears prematurely 
in the printed text. 

My contention is that, whoever Datchery may be, 
his settlement at Cloisterham is intelligible so soon as 
the Staple Inn allies have cognisance of Rosa's inter- 
view with Jasper, and no sooner. Now the manuscript 
shows that Dickens had described that interview before 
Datchery appears on the scene. But though Jasper 
has said to Rosa what should rouse the allies from 
their apathy and cause them to set a watch at Cloister- 
ham, his threats cannot produce this effect until they 
are reported at Staple Inn : and therefore, except as 
another proof that Dickens sometimes altered the order 
of his chapters, the fact that "Shadow on the Sundial" 
originally preceded "A Settler at Cloisterham" in no 
wise helps my argument. Indeed it tells against it; 
inasmuch as Dickens has made an alteration, and the 
alteration which he has made is not that which I 
desiderate. 

We have however, within the limits of the three 
Parts printed in Dickens' lifetime, decisive evidence 
that neither the order of composition nor the order of 
the manuscript nor the agreement of the order of com- 
position and the order of the manuscript proves the 
order of events and the order of publication. For, 
first, the continuous paging of No. II v, vi, vii, viii, 
shows that viii was written after v, vi, vii : yet Dickens 



The manuscript 83 

ultimately placed vili at the end of Part I as chapter v. 
And, secondly, while the numeral III shows that the 
chapter entitled " Birds in the Bush," which was not 
paged by Dickens, was intended for the third Number, 
the continuous paging of " Smoothing the Way " and 
the two following chapters from i to 27 shows that X, 
XI, XII were written before the unpaged IX, and the 
numerals III IX, originally prefixed to "Smoothing 
the Way " point in the same direction. Thus here too 
the order of publication is different from the order of 
composition : but in this instance Dickens has altered 
the numeration, and accordingly the order in the 
bound volume of manuscript agrees with the order 
of publication. 

This being so, when I suppose that Dickens, if he 
had lived, would have placed xviii between xxii and 
xxiii, my hypothesis is neither illegitimate nor far- 
fetched. As I have said, I am led to it by what I 
understand to be the requirements of the situation, and 
I regard Dickens' fear, expressed to his sister-in-law, 
that he had introduced Datchery too soon\ as a strong 
confirmation of my conjecture. Moreover, Dickens 
might easily be tempted to embark prematurely upon 
this part of his story. The introduction of the watcher 

' " The explanation of it " [the rejected fragment] " perhaps is, 
that, having become a Httle nervous about the course of the tale, 
from a fear that he might have plunged too soon into the incidents 
leading on to the catastrophe, such as the Datchery assumption in 
the fifth number (a misgiving he had certainly expressed to his 
sister-in-law), it had occurred to him to open some fresh veins of 
character incidental to the interest, though not directly part of 
it." Life^ iii, 432. See above, pp. 36, 37. 



84 Abotit Edwin Drood 

with his notable personality must have interested 
Dickens intensely. Indeed, as we know, he had 
already experimented in the conversation between 
Sapsea and Poker, Life, iii, 438. The vague phrase 
with which xviii begins — "At about this time" — looks 
as if it had been deliberately chosen with a view to the 
subsequent placing of a chapter written in advance. 
In a word, it is certain that in Edwin Drood the order 
of composition is not necessarily the order of events or 
the order of publication : but the manuscript affords no 
evidence that Dickens intended to place "A Settler at 
Cloisterham " next before "The Dawn Again." 

Furthermore, in the section called "Plans" there are 
one or two hints which are worth recording. Thus upon 
"Smoothing the Way" Dickens notes — "That is, for 
Jasper's plan, through Mr Crisparkle, who takes new 
ground on Neville's new confidence." That is to say, 
when Crisparkle, on the strength of his conversation 
with Neville, goes to Jasper to ask his help in 
" smoothing the way " to a reconciliation between the 
two young fellows, he is unconsciously "smoothing the 
way " for Jasper's revised scheme. Again, " Plans " has a 
concise but fairly complete summary of "xvi, Devoted": 
"Jasper's artful use of the communication on his re- 
covery. Cloisterham Weir, Mr Crisparkle, and the 
watch and pin. Jasper's artful turn. The Dean. 
Neville cast out. Jasper's diary. ' I devote myself 
to his destruction.'" That is to say, Jasper, as soon 
as he recovers from the shock of Grewgious' news, 
"artfully" counterfeits hope and candour; and when 
Crisparkle has found the watch and the pin at the 



The inanuscript 85 

Weir, "artfully" alleges this discovery as a new ground 
for suspecting and pursuing Neville. Now these notes, 
and in particular the notes on xvi, dispose of a doubt 
which I had once entertained about Dickens' conception 
of Jasper's character. In ch. iii, p. 30, Dickens echoes 
a theory of the operation of opium which is propounded 
by Wilkie Collins in the Moonstone — "as, in some cases 
of drunkenness, and in others of animal magnetism, there 
are two states of consciousness which never clash, but 
each of which pursues its separate course as though it 
were continuous instead of broken (thus, if I hide my 
watch when I am drunk, I must be drunk again before 
I can remember where), so Miss Twinkleton has two 
distinct and separate phases of being." Observing this, 
I had wondered whether Dickens supposed Jasper, 
though he had planned the murder in his waking 
moments, to have executed it when he was under the 
influence of opium, and when he awoke to have no 
memory of what he had done. The notes which I 
have quoted from " Plans " satisfy me that there is no 
ground whatever for any such supposition : Dickens 
sees in Jasper an example of "the criminal intellect, 
which its own professed students perpetually misread, 
because they persist in trying to reconcile it with the 
average intellect of average men, instead of identifying 
it as a horrible wonder apart," p. 233; and accordingly, 
at p. 253, Grewgious describes him as "a brigand and 
a wild beast in combination." Dickens has not, then, as 
I had once feared, complicated his story by imagining 
his villain to be a dual personality, sometimes plotting 
a crime, sometimes shrinking from it in horror : he 

6-3 



86 Abottt Edwin Drood 

makes him an unmitigated scoundrel, ruthless, remorse- 
less, and, withal, resourceful, so that, even when he 
learns that the murder of Edwin has been futile, he 
immediately perceives that the story of the broken 
engagement may divert suspicion from Neville, and 
proceeds to devise a new way of directing suspicion 
towards him. 

And now I must call attention to a fact which may 
seem to favour the theory of Mr Proctor and Mr Lang. 
I have mentioned that the manuscript volume begins 
with a page of tentative suggestions for the title of the 
book and for the names of its personages. The ex- 
perimental titles are " The loss of James (Edwyn) 
Wakefield," "James's Disappearance," "Flight and 
Pursuit," "Sworn to avenge it," "One object in Life," 
•"A Kinsman's Devotion," "The Two Kinsmen," "The 
loss of Edwin Brude," " The Mystery in the Drood 
Family," " The loss of Edwyn Drood," " The flight of 
Edwin Drood," "Edwin Drood in hiding," "The loss 
of Edwin Drude," " The Disappearance of Edwin 
Drood," "The Mystery of Edwin Drood," "Dead.'' or 
Alive?" Two of these titles, "The flight of Edwin 
Drood" and "Edwin Drood in hiding," may be thought 
to suggest that Drood escaped : but, inasmuch as 
Dickens plainly means to leave it doubtful to the last, 
I can hardly think that they are decisive\ 

' I may here comment upon two or three textual errors which 
have attracted my attention, (i) The opening sentences of the 
story are: "An ancient EngHsh Cathedral Tower? How can the 
ancient English Cathedral tower be here ! The well-known massive 
gray square tower of its old Cathedral ? How can that be here ! " 



The manuscript 87 

The possessive pronoun " its " has no meaning. Plainly, in the 
second sentence, " town " should be substituted for " tower " ; " How 
can the ancient English Cathedral town be here ! " So the MS. 
(2) In ch. xix "Shadow on the Sundial," p. 225, Jasper, appealing 
to Rosa, speaks of Edwin Drood's portrait of her, "which I feigned 
to hang always in my sight for his sake, but worshipped in torment 
for years." Instead of "for jm?'^," read '■'■iox yours ^^^ that is to say 
" for your sake," in opposition to " for his sake." The manuscript 
gives this reading, and it is obviously right : for, plainly, Jasper had 
not been long resident at Cloisterham. (3) In the last chapter, 
p. 285, the printed texts have, "Its antiquities and ruins are sur- 
passingly beautiful, with a lusty ivy gleaming in the sun, and the rich 
trees waving in the balmy air." For "a lusty ivy," read, with the 
manuscript, "the lusty ivy." (4) In ch. xvi, p. 197, Dickens calls 
"Minor Canon Corner''' by its real name, "Minor Canon /?<??«'," just 
as in Lothair Disraeli for once forgot himself, and called a con- 
temporary ecclesiastic, not Catesby, but, by his real name, Capell. 

In the " Plans," the Landlesses were named, with a query, 
Neville and Olympia Heyridge or Heyfort : and the Verger, whom 
we know as Tope, was called Peptune. 



§ X. Conclusion. 

Let me now formulate the principal issues, and 
state summarily the views which have been taken 
about them. 

(i) Did Jasper attempt to murder Drood? Mr 
Proctor, Mr Cuming Walters, Mr Lang, and, so far 
as I know, all who have handled the subject, hold, as 
I do, that Jasper attempted to murder Drood. 

(2) What was the scene of the attempted murder? 
According to Mr Cuming Walters, and, apparently, 
according to Mr Proctor, the scene of the attempted 
murder was "near the Cathedral," Clues, p. :2^'^, — that 
is to say, outside it. Mr Lang, Puzzle, p. 56, thinks 
that Jasper, having led Drood into the Sapsea vault 
in the graveyard, imperfectly strangled him there. 
According to Mr Charles, Jasper strangled Drood 
at the gatehouse. According to Mr G. F. Gadd 
{Dickensian, iv, 102), Jasper, having strangled Drood 
"on the top of the tower," "topples the body over 
into that ' stillest part ' where the tomb awaits it." 
Mr H. Hall {Dickensian, i, 250) makes "the great 
tower of the Cathedral the scene of the tragedy." In 
my opinion, Jasper bonneted Drood with the scarf as 



Conclusion 89 

they descended the staircase of the Cathedral tower, 
and flung him down the steep steps. 

(3) Where did Jasper deposit Edwins body ? The 
body was deposited, according to Mr Lang and 
Mr Charles in the Sapsea tomb in the graveyard ; 
according to Mr Proctor and Mr Cuming Walters in a 
(supposed) Sapsea vault in the crypt. My own con- 
viction is that Jasper buried it in a heap of lime in the 
crypt of the Cathedral. 

(4) Did Drood escape, and, if so, how? Mr Proctor 
thought that Durdles found Drood buried in quick- 
lime : but " his face was fortunately protected " by 
Jasper's scarf, and Durdles and Deputy carried him 
to the Travellers' Lodgings, where Grewgious joined 
them. Mr Lang conjectures that Jasper "had one 
of his 'filmy' seizures," "bungled the murder," and 
" failed to lock the door of the vault," and that "Edwin 
opened the door, and walked out," Puzzle, pp. 58, 59. 
Mr Cuming Walters and Mr Charles think that Drood 
did not escape, and I agree with them. 

(5) Who is Datcheryf According to Mr Proctor 
and Mr Lang, Datchery is Edwin Drood. According 
to Mr Charles and others, Datchery is Bazzard, but a 
Bazzard transformed out of all recognition, a Bazzard 
who does not " follow " but leads. According to 
Mr G. F. Gadd, Dickensian, ii, 12 ff., Datchery is 
Tartar. According to my friend " F. C. B.," Cam- 
bridge Review, 1906, p. 185, Datchery is Neville 
Landless. According to a writer in the Cornhill 
Magazine for March 1884, Datchery is a clever de- 



90 About Edwin Drood 

tective. According to Mr Cuming Walters, Datchery 
is Helena Landless. For myself, I dismiss the identi- 
fications of Datchery, who interests me profoundly, 
with Drood, Bazzard, Tartar, and Neville Landless, 
as wholly impossible : I regard the theory of the 
anonymous writer in the Cornhill as possible, but im- 
probable : and I think, with Mr Cuming Walters, that 
Helena Landless, who first proposed to set a watch 
upon Jasper, was herself the watcher. 

And now I will put a question which, so far as I 
know, has not been raised by any one, and, I must 
confess, seems to me insoluble. The last words of the 
first chapter are : " and then the intoned words, ' when 
THE WICKED MAN — ' Hse among groins of arches and 
beams of roof, awakening muttered thunder": and in 
the part of the manuscript which is headed "Plans" 
one of the supplementary notes for this chapter is 
" Touch the key note — * when the wicked man.' " I 
ask then, (6) is Dickens thinking of these four words 
only, or has he in his mind the whole text? In other 
words, does he wish to suggest to us that Jasper is 
"a wicked man," or are we to expect his repent- 
ance at the end of the story ? I have no answer to 
propose. 



CAMBRIDGE: PRINTKD BY JOHN CLAY, M.A. AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. 



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